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THE  UNIVERSITY 
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FABLES  OF  INFIDELITY 


i 


AND 


FACTS  OF  FAITH 


A  SERIES  OF  TRACTS 


ON  THE  ABSURDITY  OF 

ATHEISM,  PANTHEISM,  AND  RATIONALISM. 


ROBERT  PATTERSON. 


CINCINNATI: 

AMERICAN  REFORM  TRACT  AND  BOOK  SOCIETY. 

1859. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859, 

By  GEO.  L.  WEED, 

In  trust  for  the  American  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society,  Cincinnati, 
in  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  Southern  District  of  Ohio. 


Pal -*3 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIRD  EDITION. 

This  is  not  so  much  a  volume  upon  the  Evidences  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  as  an  examination  of  the  Evidences  of  Infidelity.  When 
the  infidel  tells  us  that  Christianity  is  false,  and  asks  us  to  reject 
it,  he  is  hound  of  course  to  provide  us  with  something  better 
and  truer  instead;  under  penalty  of  being  considered  a  knave 
trying  to  swindle  us  out  of  our  birthright,  and  laughed  at  as 
a  fool,  for  imagining  that  he  could  persuade  mankind  to  live 
and  die  without  religion.  Suppose  he  had  proved  to  the  world’s 
satisfaction  that  all  religion  is  a  hoax,  and  all  men  professing  it 
are  liars? — how  does  that  comfort  me  in  my  hour  of  sorrow? 
Scoffing  will  not  sustain  a  man  in  his  solitude,  when  he  has  no- 
body  to  scoff  at;  and  disbelief  is  only  a  bottomless  tub,  which 
will  not  float  me  across  the  dark  river.  If  infidels  intend  to 
convert  the  world,  they  must  give  us  some  positive  system  of 
truth  which  we  can  believe,  and  venerate,  and  trust. 

A  glimmering  idea  of  this  necessity  seems  lately  to  have 
dawned  upon  some  of  them.  It  is  quite  possible  that  they  have 
also  felt  the  want  of  something  for  their  own  souls  to  believe ; 
for  an  infidel  has  a  soul,  a  poor,  hungry,  starved  soul,  just  like 
other  men.  At  any  rate,  having  grown  tired  of  pelting  the 
Church  with  the  dirt-balls  of  Voltaire  and  Paine,  they  begin  to 
acknowledge  that  it  is,  after  all,  an  institution;  and  that  the 
Bible  is  an  influential  book,  both  popular  and  useful  in  its  way. 
Mankind,  it  seems,  will  have  a  Church  and  a  Bible  of  some  sort; 
why  not  go  to  work  and  make  a  Church  and  Bible  of  their 
own  ?  Accordingly  they  have  gone  to  work,  and  in  a  very  short 
time,  have  prepared  a  variety  of  ungodly  religions,  so  various 
that  the  worldly-minded  man  who  can  not  be  suited  with  one 
to  his  taste,  must  be  very  hard  to  please.  Discordant  and  con¬ 
tradictory  in  their  positive  statements,  they  are  agreed  only  in 
negatives;  denying  the  God  of  the  Bible,  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  judgment  to  come.  Nevertheless  each  discoverer  or 
constructor  presents  his  system  to  the  world  with  great  confidence, 

469130  <3> 


4 


PREFACE. 


large  claims  to  superior  benevolence,  vast  pretensions  to  learning 
and  science,  and  no  little  cant  about  duty  and  piety.  Wonderful 
to  tell,  some  of  them  are  very  fond  of  clothing  their  ungodliness 
in  the  language  of  Scripture. 

No  pains  are  spared  to  secure  the  wide-spread  of  these  notions. 
Prominent  infidels  are  invited  to  deliver  courses  of  scientific 
lectures,  in  which  the  science  is  made  the  medium  of  conveying 
the  infidelity.  Scientific  books,  novels,  magazines,  daily  news¬ 
papers,  and  common  school  books,  are  all  enlisted  in  the  work. 
The  disciples  of  infidelity  are  numerous  and  zealous.  It  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  factory,  boarding-house,  steamboat  or  hotel, 
where  twelve  persons  are  employed,  without  an  infidel ;  and  hard¬ 
er  still  to  find  an  infidel  who  will  not  use  his  influence  to  poison 
his  associates. 

These  systems  are  well  adapted  to  the  depraved  tastes  of  the 
age.  The  business  man,  whose  whole  soul  is  set  on  money¬ 
making  and  spending,  is  right  glad  to  meet  the  Secularist,  who 
will  prove  to  him  on  scientific  principles,  that  a  man  is  much 
profited  by  gaining  the  whole  world,  even  at  the  risk  of  his  soul, 
if  he  has  such  a  thing.  The  young  and  ill-instructed  professor 
of  Christianity,  whose  longings  for  forbidden  joys  are  strong,  has 
a  natural  kindliness  toward  nationalism,  which  befogs  the  serene 
light  of  God’s  holy  law,  and  gives  the  directing  power  to  his 
own  inner  liking.  The  sentimental  young  lady,  who  would  recoil 
from  the  grossness  of  the  Deist,  is  attracted  by  the  poetry  of 
Pantheism.  Infidelity  has  had,  in  consequence,  a  degree  of  suc¬ 
cess  very  little  suspected  by  simple-minded  pastors  and  parents, 
and  which  is  often  discovered  too  late  for  remedy. 

These  tracts  are  written  to  expose  the  folly  of  some  of  these 
novel  systems  of  infidelity — leaving  others  to  show  their  wicked¬ 
ness.  It  may  surprise  some  who  would  glory  in  being  esteemed 
fiends,  to  learn  that  they  are  only  fools.  If  they  should  be  awak¬ 
ened  now  to  a  sense  of  the  absurdities  which  they  cherish  as 
philosophy,  it  might  save  them  from  awaking  another  day  to  the 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt  of  the  universe. 


PREFACE. 


5 


I  have  not  taken  up  all  the  Cavils  of  infidelity.  Their  name 
is  Legion.  Nor  have  I  troubled  my  readers  with  any  which 
they  are  not  likely  to  hear.  Leaving  the  sleeping  dogs  to  lie,  I 
have  noticed  only  such  as  I  have  known  to  bark  and  bite  in  my 
own  vicinity,  and  know  to  be  prevalent  here  in  the  west.  They 
are  stated  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  words  in  which  I  have 
heard  them  in  public  debate,  or  in  private  conversation  with 
gentlemen  of  infidel  principles.  I  have  made  no  references  to 
books  or  writers  on  that  side,  save  to  such  as  I  am  assured  were 
the  sources  of  their  sentiments.  In  such  cases  I  have  named 
and  quoted  the  authors.  Where  no  such  quotations  are  noticed 
it  will  be  understood  that  I  am  responsible  for  the  fairness  with 
which  I  have  represented  the  opinions  which  are  examined.  It 
is  not  my  design  to  fight  men  of  straw.  One  entire  Lecture — 
that  on  Prophesy — was  rewritten,  because,  as  originally  deliv¬ 
ered,  it  did  not  fully  and  fairly  represent  the  present  position 
of  infidels  on  that  subject. 

Every  historical  or  scientific  fact  adduced  in  support  of  the 
arguments  here  used  is  confirmed  by  reference  to  the  proper 
authority.  But  it  has  not  been  deemed  needful  to  crowd  the 
pages  with  references  to  the  works  of  Butler,  Buchanan,  Paley, 
Leland,  and  the  other  great  Christian  apologists,  from  whom 
the  greater  part  of  what  is  valuable  in  these  tracts  has  been 
drawn.  The  Christian  scholar  does  not  need  such  references ; 
and  to  those  for  whose  benefit  I  write,  their  names  carry  no  au¬ 
thority,  and  their  arguments  are  generally  quite  unknown.  One 
great  object  of  my  labor  will  be  gained  if  I  shall  succeed  in 
awaking  the  spirit  of  inquiry  among  my  readers,  to  such  an  ex¬ 
tent  as  to  lead  them  to  a  prayerful  and  patient  perusal  of  sev¬ 
eral  of  the  works  named  on  the  next  page.  They  have  heard 
only  one  side  of  the  question,  and  will  be  surprised  at  their  own 
ignorance  of  matters  which  they  ought  to  have  known. 

Books  on  the  evidences  are  not  generally  circulated.  Minis¬ 
ters  perhaps  have  some  volumes  in  their  libraries ;  but  in  a  hun¬ 
dred  houses,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  half  a  dozen  containing 


6 


PREFACE. 


as  many  as  would  give  an  inquiring  youth  a  fair  view  of  the 
historical  evidences  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  Nor  where  they 
are  to  be  found  are  they  generally  read.  Being  deemed  heavy 
reading,  the  magazine  or  the  newspaper  is  preferred.  Ministers 
do  not  in  general  devote  enough  of  their  time  to  such  sound 
teaching  as  will  stop  the  mouths  of  gainsayers.  I  have  been  as- 
sTrred  by  skeptical  gentlemen,  who  in  the  early  part  of  their  lives 
had  attended  church  regularly  for  twenty-two  years,  that  during 
all  that  time  they  had  never  heard  a  single  discourse  on  the  ev¬ 
idences.  Moreover  the  protean  forms  of  infidelity  are  so  various, 
and  many  of  its  present  positions  so  novel,  that  books  or  dis¬ 
courses  prepared  only  twenty  years  ago,  miss  the  mark ;  and 
rather  expose  to  the  charge  of  misrepresentation,  than  produce 
conviction.  New  books  on  infidelity  are  needed. 

When  these  tracts  were  first  published,  it  was  not  designed  to 
make  a  book.  Treating  of  different  and  discordant  systems  of 
irreligion,  whose  only  common  bond  is  opposition  to  the  gospel, 
they  are  necessarily  somewhat  unconnected.  The  design  was  to 
make  each  tract  as  complete  in  itself  as  space  permitted,  and  to 
secure  a  broadcast  distribution  of  each  among  its  own  appropri¬ 
ate  class  of  readers.  This  plan  the  writer  still  prefers.  Hun¬ 
dreds  will  read  a  tract,  who  will  not  lift  a  volume.  Forty  or 
fifty  penny  tracts  may  be  circulated  for  the  price  of  one  volume. 
But  a  very  general  desire  having  been  expressed  to  have  them 
collected  into  a  volume,  and  the  first  edition  in  that  form  hav¬ 
ing  been  speedily  exhausted,  they  are  now  presented  in  an  im¬ 
proved  dress,  with  the  addition  of  a  tract  on  the  relations  of 
Faith  and  Science.  Fully  conscious  of  many  imperfections,  yet 
firmly  persuaded  of  the  powefr  of  the  truth  which  it  exhibits, 
the  writer  commits  this  volume  to  Him  whose  Word  does  not 
return  to  him  void. 

Chicago,  December  22,  1858. 


Names  of  a  few  of  the  Standard  Works  on  the  Evidences  of  the 
Being  and  Perfections  of  God ,  and  of  the  Truth  and  Author¬ 
ity  of  the  Scriptures , 

To  be  had  of  any  respectable  bookseller,  or  in  public  libraries. 
Modern  Atheism ,  by  James  Buchanan,  L.L.  D. 

Typical  Forms  and  Special  Ends  in  Creation,  by  James  McCosh,  L.L.  D., 
and  George  Dickie,  M.  D. 

Religion  and  Geology,  Edward  Hitchcock,  L.L.  D. 

The  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  J.  P.  Hichol,  L.L.  D. 

The  Christian  Philosopher,  Thomas  Dick,  L.L.  D. 

Natural  Theology,  William  Paley,  D.  D. 

The  Analogy  of  Religion,  Natural  and  Revealed,  to  the  Constitution  and 
Course  of  Nature,  Joseph  Butler,  D.  C.  L. 

The  Bridgewater  Treatises,  Whewell,  Chalmers,  Kidd,  &c. 

The  Comprehensive  Commentary,  William  Jenks,  D.  D. 

The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Infidelity,  Eev.  David  Kelson. 

A  View  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  William  Paley,  D.  D. 

The  Eclipse  of  Faith,  ascribed  to  Henry  Rogers. 

The  Restoration  of  Belief,  ascribed  to  Isaac  Taylor. 

Lectures  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  University  of  Virginia. 

The  Divine  Authority  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  Asserted,  J.  Leland, 
„  D.  D. 

An  Apology  for  the  Bible,  in  a  series  of  letters  to  Thomas  Paine,  R.  Watson. 
A  View  of  the  Internal  Evidence  of  the  Christian  Religion,  S.  Jenyns. 

A  Letter  to  G.  West,  Esq.,  on  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  Lord  Lyttleton. 
Observations  on  the  History  and  Evidence  of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Gilbert  West,  Esq. 

Difficulties  of  Infidelity,  Faber. 

Dissertations  on  the  Prophecies,  Thos.  Hewton,  D.  D. 

An  Introduction  to  the  Critical  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  T.  H.  Horne,  Vol.  1. 
The  Evidences  of  Christianity,  Charles  Petit  Mcllvaine,  D.D. 

It  is  not  supposed  that  any  one  person  can  read  all  these,  hut  the  reader  is  earnestly 
recommended  to  read  several,  that  he  may  see  the  great  variety  of  proofs  which  con¬ 
firm  Christianity,  and  which  it  is  impossible  for  any  single  writer  to  exhibit. 


CONTENTS. 


No.  22.  I  Do  rCt  Believe  in  Beligion. 

Page. 

Unbelief  a  Misfortune, . 13 

No  harm  in  Opinions, . 16 

Unbelief  rebels  against  God, . , . 18 

An  Enemy  to  Civilization,  Liberty  and  Humanity, . 22 

No.  23.  Did  the  World  Make  Itself  ? 

Eternity  of  Matter  and  Development  Theory, . 25 

Marks  of  a  Designer  in  the  Structure  of  the  Eye, . 31 

The  Eye  Maker  sees,  over  a  wide  Field,  far,  and  perfectly,. .38 
God’s  Eye  upon  you, .  40 

No.  24.  Is  God  Everybody  and  Everybody  God? 

Pantheism,  an  antiquated  Hindoo  Notion, .  41 

A  System  of  Deception  and  Hypocrisy, .  66 

Grossly  immoral, . 49 

Virtual  Atheism, .  52 

'  / 

No.  25.  Have,  We  airy  Need  of  The  Bible? 

Civilization  and  the  Bible, .  57 

Revelation  impossible — Myths, .  95 

Revelation  useless — the  Inner  Light, .  63 

Heathen  and  Infidels  ignorant  of  God  and  Heaven, .  72 

Infidel  and  Heathen  Morality — Plato’s,  Voltaire’s,  Paine’s,.  76 

No.  26.  Who  Wrote  the  New  Testament? 

The  Bible  not  just  like  any  other  Book, . . .  85 

Two  modes  of  Investigation, .  86 

Did  the  Council  of  Nice  make  the  Bible? .  89 

The  Mythical  Theory — Evidence  of  Celsus .  90 

The  Fragment  Hypothesis — Bank  Signature  Book .  92 

The  New  Testament  could  not  be  corrupted, .  99 


(9) 


10 


CONTENTS. 


No.  27.  Is  the  Gospel  Fact  or  Fable  ?  Page. 

Historical  Evidence — cotemporary,  and  epistolary, .  97 

Letters  of  Pliny,  Peter,  and  John . 102 

Prove  the  existence,  worship,  holiness,  and  sufferings  of 
the  early  Churches, . 104 

No.  28.  Can  We  Believe  Christ  and  his  Apostles  ? 

Gospel  unique — Must  take  or  refuse  it  as  a  Whole . 113 

Testimony  to  its  Truth  circumstantial, . 118 

Witnesses  numerous  and  independent, . 120 

Confirmed  by  their  Sufferings  and  Death, . 123 

No.  29.  Prophecy. 

N  apoleon’ s — Apollo’ s — Obscurity, . 129 

Any  Philosopher  may  predict  Downfall  of  Empires, . 135 

An  awful  Truth — if  it  be  true, . 136 

Bible  Predictions  not  the  Indications  of  Experience, . 137 

Applications  of  Moral ,  not  of  Natural  Law. . 139 

Predict  very  improbable  Overturns  of  Nations, . 141 

Predict  very  improbable  Preservations , . 149 

Grand  Distinction  of  God’s  Prophecy, . 155 

No.  30.  Moses  and  the  Prophets. 

What  is  Meant  by  Calling  God  the  Author  of  the  Bible?.  161 
Different  Views  of  Inspiration — Every  Book  Inspired?....  164 

Connection  of  the  Bible  History  and  Morality, . 172 

Rationalistic  Explanation  of  the  Miracles, . 173 

Political  Importance  of  the  Sacred  Books, . 174 

The  Testimony  of  Christ . 175 

Objections. — The  Lost  Books  of  Scripture, . 179 

The  Law  Abolished  by  the  Gospel, . . . 180 

The  Imperfect  Morality  of  Judaism, . 181 

The  Imprecations  of  the  Old  Testament, . 182 

No.  31.  Infidelity  Among  the  Stars . 

Scientific  Objections  to  the  Bible, . 189 

The  Infinity  and  Self-Existence  of  the  Universe, ...193 

Buffon’s  Cosmogony — Explosion  of  a  Planet, . 219 

The  Nebular  Hypothesis — La  Placets  Theory, . 207 

The  Possibility  of  any  Theory  of  Creation, . 214 


CONTEXTS. 


11 


No.  32.  Daylight  Before  Sunrise.  page. 

Infidel  Objections  to  Genesis, . 21 T 

The  Hindoo  and  Egyptian  Chronologies, . 218 

The  Bible  wrong  about  the  Age  of  the  Earth, . 228 

The  Bible  tells  us  that  the  Firmanent  is  solid, . 232 

Light  before  the  Sun, . 238 

No.  33.  Telescopic  Views  of  Scripture. 

The  Source  of  the  Water  of  the  Deluge, . 253 

The  Stars  fighting  against  Sisera, . 255 

The  Circuit  of  the  Sun — Grand  Motion  of  the  Stars, . 264 

Abraham’s  Seed  as  the  Stars  of  the  Sky  for  Multitude, ...274 
Future  Glories  of  the  Abode  of  the  Redeemed, . 280 

No.  34.  Science ,  or  Faith. 

Must  Faith  disappear  before  the  Certainties  of  Science?... 285 

Uncertainties  of  Science, . 286 

Mathematics, . 286 

Astronomy, . 288 

Geology, . 293 

Your  Science  all  founded  upon  Faith, . 300 

Faith  Sufficient  for  this  Life, . 303 

We  need  a  Knowledge  of  which  Science  is  ignorant, 304 

All  our  dearest  interests  in  the  Region  of  Faith, . 305 

Religion  the  most  experimental  of  the  Sciences, . 306 

Religious  Experience  better  attested  than  Science, . 311 

Religion  the  only  Science  which  can  make  you  happy,. ..31 3 


■ 


' 


. 


* 


. 


I  :  •  it  I  |p  mm  mm  .  ■ 


C 


j\o.  22 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


“  I  don’t  believe  in  religion.”  So  a  great  many  people  say, 
and  a  greater  number  think.  When  one  of  this  class  is  urged  to 
love  Christ,  to  pray  to  God,  to  read  the  Bible,  to  keep  the  Sabbath 
holy,  to  worship  God  in  his  family,  and  bring  them  to  Church, 
or  any  other  plainly  commanded  duty  which  he  dislikes,  he  will 
coolly  reply,  “  I  am  not  a  member  of  the  Church ;  I  don’t  believe 
in  religion.”  As  if  he  supposed  that  the  authority  of  God’s  law 
depended  on  his  pleasure,  or  the  truth  of  religion  upon  his  belief 
of  it. . 

Some  of  these  unbelievers  will  lament  their  unbelief  as  a  mis¬ 
fortune  which  somehow  or  other  has  befallen  them.  They  would 
like  to  enjoy  that  high  religious  feeling  which  Christians  possess, 
but  really  they  are  unable  to  believe  the  dogmas  of  religion.  And 
as  their  opinions  are  the  inevitable  result  of  their  education  and 
circumstances,  if  they  should  happen  to  be  wrong,  they  can  not 
help  it,  but  must  just  rely  upon  the  infinite  mercy  of  God  to  pre¬ 
serve  them  from  the  consequences  of  error,  and  do  not  see  why 
they  may  not  please  God  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  world,  most  of 
whom  do  not  give  themselves  very  much  trouble  about  religion. 

But  this  convenient  creed  is  short  at  both  ends.  For  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  the  Bible  is  that  the  rest  of  the  world  does  not  please  God 
at  all,  but  is  crowding  down  the  broad  road  to  destruction ;  and 
the  particular  business  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  convince  the  world 
of  this  sin  of  unbelief.  And  if  unbelief  of  the  truth  be  a  mis¬ 
fortune,  and  the  mercy  of  God  has  not  prevented  it  from  falling 
upon  them,  it  may  happen  that  it  will  not  prevent  a  further  mis¬ 
fortune  of  the  belief  of  a  lie  from  falling  upon  them,  for  misfor¬ 
tunes  never  come  single.  If  a  blind  man  shall  undertake  to  walk 
a  crooked  road,  sincerely  believing  it  to  be  straight,  neither  God’s 
mercy  nor  his  sincerity  shall  prevent  him  from  falling  into  the 
ditch.  So  if  a  wordly-minded  man  shall  persist  in  the  belief  that 
ungodliness  is  just  as  pleasing  to  God  as  piety,  and  contemptuously 
despise  mercy  and  salvation  through  Christ,  and  sincerely  believe 
that  he  is  better  off  in  the  devil’s  service  than  in  God’s  worship, 
1  '  13 


2 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


I  see  no  good  reason  why  God’s  mercy,  which  allowed  all  these 
unfortunate  delusions  to  come  upon  him,  may  not  as  well  allow 
them  to  remain  upon  him — and  as  he  has  had  the  misfortune  to 
live  in  his  sins  because  of  his  unbelief,  why  he  may  not  have  the 
misfortune  to  die  in  his  sins,  because  of  his  unbelief — and,  as  God’s 
mercy  did  not  prevent  him  from  despising  the  service  of  God  in 
this  world,  why  it  may  not  well  enough  consist  with  allowing  him 
to  remain  of  the  same  opinion  in  the  next  world ;  aye,  and  to  con¬ 
tinue  of  the  same  opinion  throughout  eternity — and  as  his  opinion 
led  him  to  serve  the  devil  on  earth,  notwithstanding  God’s  mercy, 
why  the  same  opinion  may  not  lead  him  to  continue  in  the  devil’s 
service  in  hell,  notwithstanding  God’s  mercy;  for  surely  God’s 
mercy  is  not  bound  to  drag  people  to  heaven,  whether  they  will 
or  no.  If  unbelief,  then,  be  a  misfortune  merely,  it  is  certainly  a 
great  one,  the  cause  and  beginning  of  many  others,  a  fire  that  will 
surely  burn  the  house  it  has  caught  on,  a  sickness  that  will  be  the 
death  of  the  sufferer.  The  man  who  will  not  believe  God’s  truth, 
must  of  necessity  believe  the  devil’s  lie — for  there  is  no  third 
theory — and  so  live  in  error,  and  die  in  error,  and  find  himself  as 
far  astray  from  truth  and  happiness  in  the  next  world  as  he  was 
when  he  left  this.  And  so  unbelief  and  perdition  are  as  firmly 
chained  together  by  common  sense,  as  they  are  by  Holy  Scripture, 
which  says,  “He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.” 

But  still  you  may  urge  that,  “  It  is  very  hard  that  God  should 
damn  a  man  for  his  opinions,  seeing  he  cannot  help  them — that 
belief  or  unbelief  is  wholly  involuntary.  We  believe  where  wo 
have  sufficient  evidence;  and  where  we  do  not  see  sufficient  evi¬ 
dence,  we  can  not  believe  if  we  wrould.  If  I  see  any  thing  with 
my  own  eyes,  I  cannot  help  believing  it.  If  I  have  had  experience 
of  any  feeling,  I  can  not  help  believing  its  reality.  If  any  scientific 
problem  is  mathematically  proved  to  me,  I  can  not  help  believing 
it.  But  religion  gives  no  such  proof  to  me;  therefore  I  can  not  be¬ 
lieve  it.  Its  doctrines  are  beyond  my  comprehension.  The  miracles 
recorded  in  Scripture  are  contrary  to  all  my  experience,  and  the 
duties  it  requires  are  utterly  beyond  my  power  to  perform.  How 
can  I  believe  such  a  mass  of  mysteries,  or  live  up  to  such  a 
standard  of  piety?” 

The  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  Gospel  does  not  depend  on  your 
likes  or  dislikes,  nor  the  authority  of  God’s  law  on  your  notions  of 
14 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


3 


your  ability  to  keep  it.  God  nowhere  commands  you  to  understand 
the  mysteries  of  religion  any  more  than  the  mysteries  of  nature. 
You  never  .allege  that  you  can  not  believe  that  the  sunshine  is 
warm  and  bright  because  you  can  not  explain  how  it  is  so.  JM or 
is  the  evidence  on  which  you  are  called  to  believe  the  truths  of 
religion  the  evidences  of  your  senses ;  for  you  believe  in  God  I  hope, 
yet  you  never  saw  him :  nor  yet  the  evidence  of  your  own  experi¬ 
ence;  for  you  believe  you  will  die,  though  neither  you  nor  any 
one  living  ever  experienced  death.  You  have  no  more  need  for 
mathematical  demonstration  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Bible,  before 
you  believe  it  and  frame  your  life  by  it,  than  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  laws  of  Ohio, 
of  which,  nevertheless,  you  have  not  the  slightest  doubt,  and  frame 
your  life  accordingly. 

And  now,  as  to  your  not  being  able  to  help  your  unbelief,  we 
will  inquire  a  little  into  that.  A  person  believes  according  to  the 
evidence  he  sees  of  the  truth  of  any  statement,  or  according  to  the 
confidence  he  has  in  the  integrity  of  the  person  who  makes  it.  His 
view  of  the  evidence  depends  upon  the  attention  he  gives  to  it. 
There  may  be  sufficient  evidence  for  the  truth  of  religion,  but  the 
man  who  does  not  attend  to  it  will  not  see  it.  The  astronomer 
knows  very  well  that  the  earth  moves  round  the  sun,  because  he 
has  studied  the  evidence  of  that  truth ;  while  the  savage  who  has 
not,  or  the  school-boy  who  will  not,  obstinately  asserts  that  the  sun 
moves  round  the  earth.  This  they  very  sincerely  believe,  because 
of  their  ignorance ;  and  while  they  are  ignorant  they  can  not  help 
believing  as  they  do;  but  surely  no  one  will  say  that  they  can  not 
help  their  erroneous  belief,  unless  he  can  show  that  they  can  not 
help  their  ignorance.  The  things  revealed  in  the  Bible  are  not 
self-evident  truths — had  they  been  so  we  had  needed  no  Bible: 
he  who  would  believe  them  must  attend  to  the  evidences  of  their 
truth  which  God  has  furnished.  If  any  one,  either  from  dislike 
of  these  truths  themselves,  or  of  the  duties  to  which  they  lead, 
will  refuse  or  neglect  to  consider  these  evidences,  it  is  very  certain 
that  he  will  not  believe  them,  and  still  more  certain  that  he  should 
not  affirm  that  he  can  not  help  his  unbelief.  So  when  you  say  you 
can  not  believe  the  Bible  in  general,  or  some  of  its  particular 
truths,  that  may  be  very  true,  because  you  keep  yourself  in  igno¬ 
rance  of  the  evidence ;  but  while  you  keep  yourself  ignorant,  it  is 

15 


4 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIC. ^'N. 


false  to  say  you  can  not  help  your  unbelief.  You  can  certainly 
read  the  Bible  through,  from  beginning  to  end.  That  is  the  very 
least  examination  that  any  book,  worth  reading  at  all,  can  receive. 
You  know  that  it  would  be  only  a  lie  to  your  own  conscience  to 
say,  “  I  can  not  help  my  unbelief  of  this  book,  which  I  have  never 
read.”  Now  I  put  it  to  your  own  conscience,  Have  you  read  the 
Bible  through,  yea  or  not?  If  not,  your  unbelief  is  wilful.  You 
can  help  it,  but  you  will  not. 

When  I  speak  of  reading  the  Bible,  I  do  not  mean  such  a  cursory 
and  forced  perusal  as  a  lazy  school-boy  gives  his  arithmetic,  read¬ 
ing  the  words  and  figures  because  he  is  told  to  do  so,  but  never 
giving  any  serious  study  to  learn  their  meaning,  nor  applying  to 
his  teacher  for  aid  in  his  difficulties  ;  but,  after  yawning  over  a 
page  or  two,  throwing  down  the  book  with  disgust,  and  saying  he 
can  not  believe  such  nonsense.  Just  so  some  persons  read  the 
Bible,  either  because  they  are  told  to  do  so  by  their  parents,  or 
because  their  consciences  say  they  should;  but  they  fill  their  hearts 
and  minds  with  other  matters,  and  Avhen  their  sleepy  attention  is 
by  chance  roused  enough  to  see  a  difficulty,  they  never  grapple 
with  it ;  and,  though  God  has  promised  his  Holy  Spirit  as  a  teacher 
to  those  who  ask  him,  they  never  thought  it  worth  while  to  try 
whether  he  was  in  earnest  or  not.  Now,  lot  the  conscience  of  every 
such  person  answer,  Is  it  your  fault  or  God's  that  you  are  thus 
impious?  Until,  then,  you  repent  of  your  impiety,  and  earnestly 
pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  teach  you  the  truth,  and  pray  in  vain, 
it  is  utterly  false  for  you  to  say  that  you  can  not  help  your  unbe¬ 
lief.  Your  religion  or  irreligion  is  just  as  much  a  matter  of  your 
own  choice  as  the  trade  you  practice  or  neglect,  at  your  pleasure. 

But  still  it  is  urged:  “Granting  that  we  do  choose  our  belief, 
what  great  harm  can  there  be  in  doubting  certain  mysterious 
dogmas,  or  denying  certain  religious  doctrines?  There  must  cer¬ 
tainly  be  room  for  harmless  differences  about  religion,  as  well  as 
about  other  things.  My  belief  or  unbelief  can  do  no  injury  to  God, 
who  is  far  removed  beyond  the  reach  of  my  opinions.  And  if  my 
opinions  do  no  injury  to  my  neighbors,  I  see  no  reason  why  I  should 
perish  eternally  on  account  of  them,  even  though  they  should  prove 
to  be  erroneous,  and  I  might  have  known  better.” 
i  If, — aye,  that  is  just  the  point,  that  if  Let  us  inquire  whether 
unbelief  of  God’s  word,  and  contempt  for  God’s  law,  be  injurious 
16 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


5 


treatment  of  Him  or  not ;  and  whether  a  life  of  ungodliness  and 
irreligion  be  a  harmless  example  to  set  before  your  neighbors;  and 
whether  God  could,  with  safety  to  the  universe,  allow  such  people 
as  you  to  think  and  do  as  they  please  with  impunity. 

The  character  of  the  person  whom  you  refuse  to  believe  has  cer¬ 
tainly  something  to  do  with  this  matter,  though  you  seem  not  to 
have  thought  of  that  at  all.  There  are  thousands  of  persons  in 
this  world  who  have  no  special  claim  upon  your  attention,  and  yet 
the  honor  due  to  all  men  as  fellow-beings  demands  that  when  one 
of  them  addresses  you,  you  listen  to  his  communication.  It  is  not 
until  a  person  has  earned  the  character  of  a  public  liar  and  chea 
that  you  refuse  him  a  hearing,  and  turn  him  out  of  doors.  By 
your  wilful  unbelief  and  neglect  of  religion  you  treat  God  with 
more  contempt  than  you  would  show  to  any  passing  stranger,  and 
turn  Him  out  to  receive  the  like  disrespect  from  others.  If  an  inti¬ 
mate  friend  addressed  a  letter  to  you,  and  3rou  returned  it  unan¬ 
swered,  unperused,  unopened,  every  person  who  knew  that,  would 
at  once  conclude  that  this  friend  had  deceived  and  injured  you, 
and  that  you  took  this  method  of  closing  your  intercourse  with 
him,  to  prevent  him  from  deceiving  and  injuring  you  again.  God 
has  been  a  good  friend  to  you  ;  yet  you  will  neither  read  his  letter 
nor  believe  his  communication.  Is  that  kindly  to  your  friend  ? 
When  the  Secretary  of  Congress  sends  authenticated  copies  of  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  to  the  governors  and  people  of  the  various 
States,  if  some  of  them  should  refuse  to  read  them,  and  say  they 
did  not  mean  to  pay  any  attention  to  them,  because  they  did  not 
believe  in  such  things,  would  you  think  that  this  was  simply  a 
queer  opinion  of  these  people,  but  one  that  had  no  great  harm  in 
it?  Would  you  think  them  good  loyal  American  citizens,  albeit 
they  Avould  neither  acknoAvledge  the  Constitution,  obey  the  laws, 
or  submit  to  the  judges?  Would  you  not  say  that  their  rejection 
of  the  documents  argued  their  disloyalty  to  the  Government  that 
sent  them,  that  their  disobedience  proved  their  treason,  and  that 
their  rebellion  called  for  all  the  forces  of  the  nation  to  suppress 
and  punish  it?  God  is  your  Governor.  He  has  sent  you  a  com¬ 
munication,  but  you  will  not  recei\re  it.  It  contains  his  1  a aat s ,  but 
you  will  not  read  them.  You  live  in  the  daily  violation  of  them, 
and  say  to  your  fello\Ar-man  you  hope  it  is  no  harm,  that  your 
opinions  on  religion  differ  from  God’s,  and  surely  there  can  be  no 
2  17 


6 


I'  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


great  harm  in  one’s  opinions.  When  you  answer  to  God  for  your 
sins,  will  you  dare  to  say  that  you  transgressed  his  law  because 
you  did  not  believe  it — that  indeed  you  never  read  it — that  you  did 
not  think  such  a  matter  worthy  of  the  least  attention — that  you  did 
not  believe  in  religion  ? 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  certainly  worthy  of  better  treatment 
than  you  give  him.  If  you  could  prove  him  to  be  a  liar  and  an 
impostor,  if  you  could  show  that  his  teachings  were  impure  and 
unholy,  and  that  the  record  of  his  mighty  works  was  all  a  fable, 
then  your  unbelief  wrould  be  blameless.  There  is  no  middle  ground 
for  you  to  take.  Jesus  is  either  what  he  said  he  was — the  Son  of 
God,  the  Savior  of  sinners ;  and  his  Gospel  is  what  he  declares  it 
is — God’s  message  for  your  soul’s  salvation ;  or  he  is  not  what  he 
professed  to  be,  and  so  is  a  liar  and  an  impostor,  and  as  such  to 
be  despised  by  all  honest  men.  This  is  what  every  unbeliever  says 
by  his  conduct,  namely,  that  Jesus  is  not  worthy  of  belief.  Now 
let  me  press  this  upon  the  conscience  of  every  half-way  unbeliever 
who  may  read  this  tract:  Are  you  prepared  to  prove  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  an  impostor  and  a  cheat?  Will  you  go  to  the  judgment  seat 
of  God  with  the  evidence  in  your  hands  that  he  is  a  liar,  and  his 
Gospel  an  imposture?  It  makes  no  difference  what  the  form  of 
your  unbelief  may  be,  whether  you  are  a  scoffing  libertine  or  a 
decent  church-goer — whether  you  have  sense  enough  to  see  the 
consequence  of  unbelief,  and  honesty  enough  to  avow  it — or  whether 
you  try  to  cloak  the  unbelief  of  your  heart  by  an  oily-tongued  civil¬ 
ity — the  language  of  every  person  tvho  does  not  profess  a  hearty 
faith  in  Christ,  and  become  a  member  of  his  Church,  is  most  plainly 
and  unmistakeably  this : 

“  I  do  not  believe  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  God  sent  him  into  the  world.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  he  taught  the  truth.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  he  wrought  miracles.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  he  died  to  save  sinners.” 

“I  do  not  believe  in  forgiveness  through  his  blood.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  he  rose  from  the  dead.” 

“I  do  not  believe  that  he  ascended  up  into  heaven.” 

“  I  do  not  believe  that  he  governs  the  world.” 

“I  do  not  believe  that  he  will  come  again  to  judge  me  and  all 
the  world  at  the  last  day.” 

18 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


7 


“But  I  believe  that — 

“  The  Bible  is  a  fable.” 

“  That  such  a  person  as  the  Jesus  it  describes  never  lived.” 

“  That  the  Apostles  were  vile  lying  impostors,”  and, 

“  That  all  Christians  are  either  knaves  or  fools.” 

Can  you  imagine  that  it  is  an  affair  of  no  consequence  that  you 
thus  vilify  Christ  and  his  Gospel,  and  put  him  to  open  shame? 

The  Holy  Spirit  bears  witness  to  the  truth  of  God’s  message,  and 
of  Christ’s  mission.  He  has  attested  the  truth  of  the  gospel  by 
many  most  wonderful  works ;  among  others  by  teaching  the  first 
preachers  to  proclaim  it  in  languages  they  never  learned  from 
man,  else  it  had  never  come  to  your  ears.  Multitudes  of  those 
who  saw  these  miracles  were  convinced  so  fully  of  the  divinity  of 
the  gospel,  that  they  suffered  death  rather  than  disown  it.  The 
Holy  Spirit  has  given  you  stronger  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
facts  of  the  gospel  history,  of  the  life  and  death,  and  resurrection  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  than  you  ever  had  of  any  other  history  whatever. 
You  have  no  such  abundance  of  conclusive  proof  that  such  a  man 
as  George  Washington  lived  and  fought  his  country’s  battles,  or 
that  the  Continental  Congress  declared  the  Independence  of  these 
United  States,  as  you  have  that  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead, 
and  that  his  Apostles  preached  the  gospel  and  planted  churches 
to  preserve  and  proclaim  it  over  the  world.  You  have  only  one 
national  holiday  in  the  year  to  commemorate  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  while  every  week  has  a  ‘‘Lord’s  Day,”  t-o  celebrate 
the  resurrection  of  your  Lord,  and  every  church  bell  rings  out  in 
your  hearing,  “Christ  is  risen,  Christ  is  risen.”  If  you  suppose 
it  an  easy  matter  to  get  people  persuaded  to  give  up  their  usual 
employments,  and  celebrate  commemorations  of  things  which  never 
happened,  you  can  try  the  experiment.  Suppose  you.  persuade  the 
people  of  Kentucky,  black  and  white,  bond  and  free,  to  observe  the 
4th  of  August  every  year  as  a  holy  day,  and  to  go  to  church  and 
give  thanks  to  God  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  or  for  some 
other  event  which  never  happened,  and  which,  if  they  can  help  it, 
never  will.  You  would,  doubtless,  be  sent  to  the  nearest  lunatic 
asylum  before  you  had  proceeded  far  on  such  an  errand.  Now,  do 
you  think  Christ  and  his  Apostles  were  such  madmen,  or  that  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  who  believed  them  were  fools?  Or,  that  at 
some  later  period,  the  world  was  peopled  with  a  race  of  idiots,  and 

19 


) 


8 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


suddenly,  in  Italy  and  England,  in  Syria  and  Switzerland,  in 
France  and  Persia,  in  Germany  and  Africa,  a  number  of  knowing 
men  invented  the  gospel  story,  and  got  them  to  believe  it,  and  per¬ 
suaded  them  to  employ  a  day  in  every  week  in  hearing  and  com¬ 
memorating  events  in  which  they  were  no  ways  interested,  and 
which,  in  fact,  never  happened  ?  How  do  you  account  for  the 
observance  of  the  Lord’s  Day,  and  of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  and  the 
existence  of  the  Church  of  Christ?  By  your  saying,  “I  don’t  be¬ 
lieve  in  religion,”  you  would  make  out  these  things  to  be  all  delu¬ 
sions  of  Satan.  Are  the  struggles  of  your  own  conscience  from 
the  same  source?  Is  it  a  light  thing  to  strive  with  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  quench  the  light  within  you,  and  feed  your  own  soul 
with  a  miserable  lie,  which  for  very  shame  you  dare  not  put  into 
words,  and  tell  to  your  neighbors  ? 

Do  you  really  believe  that  it  is  in  no  way  offensive  to  God,  that 
you  treat  his  message  with  such  contempt  as  you  would  not  show 
to  the  meanest  of  your  neighbors — that  you  receive  his  Son  as  a 
lying  impostor — that  you  treat  the  writings  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  forgeries,  and  His  ordinances  as  fooleries,  and  drown  His 
voice  in  your  own  soul  as  a  delusion?  Is  it  a  small  sin  to  despise 
the  Father,  to  reject  the  Son,  and  do  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  Grace? 
Or  do  you  suppose  He  is  only  jesting  who  says,  “  Vengeance  is  mint 
I  ivill  repay,  saith  the  Lord.” 

And  now  let  us  inquire  whether  your  unbelief  be  not  as  in 
jurious  to  your  neighbors  as  it  is  offensive  to  God,  and  hurtful  to 
your  own  soul.  Your  opinions,  it  is  true,  will  hurt  nobody  so  long 
as  you  keep  them  to  yourself.  But  you  do  not.  Every  action  of 
your  ungodly  life  proclaims  them.  Your  neighbors  all  know  that 
you  do  not  serve  God,  that  you  do  not  love  Christ,  that  you  do  not 
belong  to  his  Church,  and  you  tell  them,  “I  don’t  believe  in 
religion.”  So,  by  precept  and  example,  you  do  your  best  to  make 
theiq  all  of  the  same  opinions,  and  teach  them  to  imitate  your 
practices.  If  irreligion  and  ungodliness  be  good  for  you,  it  is 
equally  good  for  them.  It  is  not  your  fault  that  all  the  world 
is  not  of  your  way  of  thinking  and  acting,  for,  if  they  would  be 
guided  by  you,  they  would  every  one  say  as  you  say,  “I  don’t 
believe  in  religion.”  God  judges  you  according  to  your  heart  and 
intention,  and  according  to  the  tendency  of  your  conduct,  though 
he  does  not  let  you  do  all  the  evil  you  would;  just  as  you  judge 
20 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


9 


the  villain  to  be  an  incendiary,  and  worthy  of  the  penitentiary, 
who  sets  fire  to  your  house,  though  you  see  it,  and  put  it  out  before 
it  is  burned  down. 

Let  us  see  now  what  would  be  the  consequences  of  your  unbelief 
to  your  neighbors,  if  God  did  not  prevent  them.  Your  forefathers 
were  naked  savages,  with  a  piece  of  raw  hide  thrown  over  their 
shoulders,  who  lived  in  wattled  huts,  and  ate  roasted  acorns,  and 
burned  their  own  children  in  sacrifice  to  devils.  If  you  have  a 
coat  to  your  back  to-day,  or  a  loaf  of  bread  in  your  cupboard, 
if  you  have  a  market  to  go  to,  or  a  road  to  reach  it ;  if  you  have 
a  school  for  your  children,  or  children  to  send  to  it,  you  owe  all 
these  blessings  to  that  religion  which  you  say  you  don’t  believe. 
Yet  you  would  do  what  you  could  to  stop  its  progress,  and  allow 
the  savage  and  the  heathen  to  live  on  in  misery,  and  butcher  each 
other,  as  they  ever  have  done,  and  say,  “  0,  my  opinions  do  no 
harm  to  my  neighbors.”  Are  you  not  worse  than  a  savage? 

You  are  an  American — a  friend  of  liberty.  For  six  thousand 
years  tyrants  have  trampled  upon  the  liberties  of  mankind.  Pha¬ 
raohs  and  Nebuehadnezzars,  Emperors  of  Rome  and  Emperors  of 
Russia,  the  Sea  Kings  of  Europe  and  the  Khans  of  Tartary,  Kings 
of  France  and  Emperors  of  Germany,  one  race  of  tyrants  afier 
another,  with  bloody  sword  or  legal  chain,  has  hewn  down  the 
rights  of  men,  and  manacled  their  God-given  liberties  in  every 
land  where  the  religion  of  Christ  has  n^t  reigned.  The  world’s  his¬ 
tory  does  not  show  a  single  exception?^  The  only  notion  of  true 
liberty  you  have,  you  learned  from  the  Bible.  The  manliness  to 
speak  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  die  for  it,  which  bequeathed  your 
birth-right  of  liberty,  your  Puritan  fathers  gathered  from  religion. 
Religion,  Christ’s  religion,  which  makes  men  free  indeed,  is  the 
only  safeguard  of  liberty.  There  is  no  liberty  at  this  moment  save 
in  those  lands  where  the  religion  of  Christ  prevails.  Look  over 
the  map  of  the  world.  Have  the  people  of  China  liberty?  Are 
the  people  of  Russia  free?  Have  the  butchering,  kidnapping  tribes 
of  Africa  freedom.  Is  Mohammedan  despotism  liberty?  Is  South 
American  anarchy  liberty?  Would  you  submit  to  the  police  of 
France,  or  take  a  lodging  in  the  dungeons  of  Italy?  Would  you 
exchange  the  Constitution  for  the  Austrian  concordat,  or  the  ballot- 
box  for  three  revolutions  in  the  year  ?  England  and  America,  the 
lands  of  liberty,  are  the  lands  of  religion  ;  but  you  “  don’t  believe 

21 


10 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


in  religion/'  A  whole  nation  once  did  not.  They  voted  that  there 
was  no  God,  that  death  was  an  eternal  sleep,  that  reason  was  the 
only  ruler,  that  the  Sabbath  and  the  worship  of  God  should  cease. 
Then,  having  removed  the  law  of  God,  the  only  foundation  on 
which  the  law  of  man  can  rest,  they  commenced  butchering  each 
other,  until  the  streets  of  Paris  ran  ankle  deep  with  blood,  and 
the  remnant  rushed  into  the  arms  of  absolute  military  despotism 
as  a  refuge  from  atheistic  anarchy.  And  this,  unbeliever,  is  what 
you  would  bring  your  country  to,  if  you  could.  Let  every  one 
adopt  your  opinions,  and  we  would  have  all  the  horrors  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  of  Napoleon’s  decrees,  and  conscriptions 
and  proscriptions,  before  seven  years.  How  dare  you  say  your 
unbelief  does  no  harm  to  your  neighbor,  when  it  undermines  the 
citadel  of  your  country’s  liberties? 

Your  neighbors  have  consciences  and  souls.  They  know  they 
have  offended  God.  The  guilt  of  unforgiven  sin  is  a  grievous  load 
upon  the  heart  of  a  sorrow-stricken,  dying  man.  lie  knows,  he 
feels  in  every  fibre  of  his  soul,  that  losses  and  disappointments, 
that  sorrows  and  pains,  that  agony  of  mind  and  sickness  of  body, 
which  ever  follow  the  transgression  of  God’s  laws,  are  marks  of 
God’s  displeasure.  Ilis  common  sense  tells  him  that  these  tilings 
befall  sinners  too  uniformly  to  happen  by  chance,  and  that  the 
God  who  sends  them  has  some  reason  for  thus  visiting  sin.  He 
knows,  he  feels,  that  if  God  continues  to  deal  with  sinners  after 
death  as  he  has  done  before  it,  the  sinner  will  have  sorrow.  Ihen 
this  death  which  approaches!  Almighty  God  smiting  every  sinner 
with  the  sword  of  death,  making  earth  one  vast  grave-yard,  and  tno 
human  race,  shrieking  and  Hying  from  the  fearful  foe,  compelled 
to  become  its  tenants!  What  does  it  mean?  And  conscience 
says,  and  Scripture  says,  and  he  knows  it  to  be  true,  *  1  he  u'agcs 
of  sin  is  death.”  0  to  be  freed  from  this  sin  !  O  to  be  delivered 
from  this  punishment  of  a  sore  wounded  conscience,  of  the  pangs 
of  guilt,  of  the  present  dread,  and  dreadful  prospect  of  deserved 
torment!  lie  has  no  power  to  repair  the  past,  little  ability  to 
amend  the  brief  future.  What  shall  he  do  to  be  saved?  In  this 
extremity  the  gospel  comes  to  his  cars,  the  only  religion  on  earth 
which  even  professes  to  offer  free  forgiveness  of  sins.  He  hears 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins  proclaimed  in  Jesus’  name.  He  is 
told,  “ Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shall  he  saved  and 
22 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


11 


thy  house  .”  He  inclines  to  believe  the  joyful  sound,  to  accept  par¬ 
don  and  peace  in  Jesus.  But  you  stand  at  his  side,  and  with'  a 
contemptuous  smile  you  inform  him,  “I  don’t  believe  in  religion.” 

Inhuman  wretch!  Were  you  able  to  prove  religion  false,  surely 
in  such  a  world  of  sorrow,  and  with  such  a  certainty  of  a  coming 
world  of  woe  as  its  falsehood  would  render  inevitable,  it  were  horrid 
cruelty  to  snatch  from  the  parched  lips  of  the  dying  sinner  the 
oflly  draught  of  peace  which  earth  affords.  But  how  awful  your 
conduct,  seeing  that  you  can  not  prove  it  false,  nay,  that  in  your 
own  soul  you  more  than  suspect  it  true!  You  dash  in  pieces  the 
chalice  which  contains  the  blood  of  Christ — you  laugh  to  scorn  the 
voice  of  mercy  to  a  dying  world — you  chase  peace  from  earth  and 
hope  of  heaven  from  men. 

Unbeliever!  This  is  the  hellish  malignity  of  your  sin.  You  turn 
your  face  to  the  way  of  ruin — you  murder  the  only  religion  that 
can  deliver  men  from  sin  and  hell — you  close  the  gates  of  heaven, 
put  the  torch  to  God’s  building  of  mercy,  open  the  bottomless  pit 
of  woe,  and  plunge  every  sinner  of  earth  into  everlasting  perdition! 
IIow  long,  think  you,  will  God  tolerate  such  an  enemy  of  God  and 
man  ? 

Fly,  fly  to  Christ  for  pardon  of  your  awful  guilt.  Bless  God 
that  there  is  forgiveness  even  for  such  as  you.  And  say  to  every 
one  of  your  acquaintances  to  whom  you  have  declared  your  unbe¬ 
lief,  “Ii  is  a  faithful  saying ,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation ,  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am 
chief” 

“  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeih  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life.  For  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the  world, 
but  that  the  world,  through  Him,  might  be  saved.  He  that  believeih 
on  Him  is  not  condemned ;  but  he  that  believeih  not  is  condemned 
already ,  because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of  the  only  be¬ 
gotten  Son  of  God.  And  this  is  the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come 
into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because 
their  deeds  were  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth  evil  haUth  the  light, 
neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved.  But 
he  that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the  light,  that  his  deeds  may  be  made 
manifest  that  they  are  wrought  in  God. 

“ He  that  cometh  from  heaven  is  above  all,  and  what  he  hath  seen 

23 


12 


I  DON’T  BELIEVE  IN  RELIGION. 


and  heard  that  he  testifieth,  and  no  man  receiveth  his  testimony.  He 
that  hath  received  his  testimony  hath  set  to  his  seal  that  God  is  true. 
For  he  whom  God  hath  sent  speaketh  the  words  of  God ,  for  God 
giveth  not  the  Spirit  by  measure  unto  him.  The  Father  loveth  the 
Son.  and  hath  given  all  things  into  his  hand.  He  that  believeth  on 
the  Son  hath  everlasting  life ;  and  he  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall 
not  see  life ,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.” — John,  chap.  3. 


I 


No.  23. 

BID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


Understand,  ye  brutish  among  the  people  ; 

And,  ye  fools,  when  will  ye  be  wise? 

He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear? 

He  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see  ? 

He  that  chastiseth  the  heathen,  shall  he  be  not  correct? 

He  that  teacheth  man  knowledge,  shall  he  not  know  ? — PSALM  94:  8,  9. 

Has  the  Creator  of  the  world  common  sense?  Did  he  know  what 
he  was  about  in  making  it?  Had  he  any  object  in  view  in  forming 
it?  Does  he  know  what  is  going  on  in  it?  Does  he  care  whether 
it  an s Avers  any  purpose  or  not?  Strange  questions  you  will  say; 
yet  we  need  to  ask  a  stranger  question :  Had  the  world  a  creator, 
or  did  it  make  itself?  There  are  persons  who  say  it  did,  and  with 
brazen-faced  impudence  declare  that  the  Bible  sets  out  with  a  lie 
when  it  says,  that  “  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth.”  Whereas,  say  they,  “We  knoAv  that  matter  is  eternal, 
and  the  Avorld  is  Avholly  composed  of  matter  ;  therefore,  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  are  eternal — never  had  a  beginning  nor  a  creator.” 

But,  however  fully  the  Atheist  and  the  Pantheist  may  know  that 
matter  is  eternal,  we  do  not  know  any  such  thing,  and  must  be 
alloAved  to  ask,  How  do  you  know  t  As  you  are  not  eternal,  we 
cannot  take  it  on  your  word. 

The  only  reason  which  any  body  ever  ventured  for  this  amazing 
assertion  is  this,  that  “all  philosophers  agree  that  matter  is  inde¬ 
structible  by  its  very  nature  ;  that  it  can  neArer  cease  to  exist.  You 
may  boil  water  into  steam,  but  it  is  all  there  in  the  steam;  or  burn 
coal  into  gas,  ashes  and  tar,  but  it  is  all  in  the  gas,  ashes,  and  tar; 
you  may  change  the  outward  form  as  much  as  you  please,  but  you 
cannot  destroy  the  substance  of  any  thing.  Wherefore,  as  matter 
is  indestructible,  it  must  be  eternal.” 

Profound  reasoning !  Here  is  a  brick  fresh  from  the  kiln,  which 
will  last  for  a  thousand  years  to  come;  therefore,  it  has  existed  for 
a  thousand  years  past! 

The  foundation  of  the  argument  is  as  rotten  as  the  superstruc¬ 
ture.  It  is  not  agreed  among  all  philosophers  that  matter  is,  by  its 
own  nature,  indestructible,  for  the  very  satisfactory  reason  that 
none  of  -them  can  tell  what  matter  in  its  own  nature  is.*  All  that 

*  It  will  be  seen  that  the  proof  of  the  being-  of  God  here  presented,  rests  upon  the 
impossibility  of  self-existeut  design  in  matter. 


25 


o 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


they  can  undertake  to  say  is,  that  they  have  observed  certain  pro¬ 
perties  of  matter,  and,  among  these,  that  “it  is  indestructible  by 
any  operations  to  which  it  can  be  subjected  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  circumstances  observed  at  the  surface  of  the  globe.”*  The  very 
utmost  which  any  man  can  assert  in  this  matter  is  a  negative,  a 
want  of  knowledge  or  a  want  of  power.  lie  can  say,  “Human 
power  cannot  destroy  matter ;”  and,  if  he  pleases,  he  may  reason 
thence  that  human  power  did  not  create  it-.  But  to  assert  that 
matter  is  eternal  because  man  cannot  destroy  it,  is  as  if  a  child 
should  try  to  beat  the  cylinder  of  a  steam  engine  to  pieces,  and, 
failing  in  the  attempt,  should  say  “I  am  sure  this  cylinder  existed 
from  eternity,  because  I  am  unable  to  destroy  it.” 

But  we  are  not  done  with  the  absurdities  of  the  eternity  of  mat¬ 
ter.  We  say  to  our  would-be  philosophers,  When  you  tell  us  that 
matter  is  eternal,  how  does  that  account  for  the  formation  of  this 
world?  What  is  this  matter  you  speak  of?  This  world  consists 
not  of  a  philosophical  abstraction  called  matter,  nor  yet  of  one 
substance  known  by  that  name,  but  of  a  great  variety  of  material 
substances,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  carbon,  sulphur,  iron,  aluminum, 
and  some  fifty-one  others  already  discovered.!  Now,  which  of 
these  is  the  eternal  matter  you  speak  of?  Is  it  iron,  or  sulphur,  oif 
clay,  or  oxygen?  If  it  is  any  one  of  them,  where  did  the  others 
come  from?  Did  a  mass  of  iron,  becoming  discontented  with  its 
gravity,  suddenly  metamorphose  itself  into  a  cloud  of  gas  or  a  pail 
of  water?  Or  are  they  all  eternal?  Have  we  fifty-seven  eternal 
beings?  Are  they  all  eternal  in  their  present  combinations  ?  or  is 
it  only  the  single  elements  that  are  eternal?  You  see  that  your 
hypothesis — that  matter  is  eternal — gives  me  no  light  on  the  forma¬ 
tion  of  this  world,  which  is  not  a  shapeless  mass  of  a  philosophi¬ 
cal  abstraction  called  matter,  but  a  regular  and  beautiful  building, 
composed  of  a  great  variety  of  matters.  Was  it  so  from  eternity  ? 
No  man  who  was  ever  in  a  quarry  or  a  gravel  pit  will  say  so,  much 
less  one  who  has  the  least  smattering  of  chemistry  or  geology.  Do 
you  assert  the  eternity  of  the  fifty-seven  single  substances,  either 
separate,  or  combined  in  some  other  way  than  we  now  find  them  in 
the  rocks  and  rivers  and  atmosphere  of  the  earth  ?  Then  how  came 
they  to  get  together  at  all,  and  particularly  how  did  they  put  them¬ 
selves  in  their  present  shapes  ? 


♦Reid’s  Chemistry,  Chap.  II,  §  37,  Chambers’  Educational  Course. 
■{•Johnson’s  Turner’s  Chemistry,  g  341. 

26 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


3 


Each  of  them  is  a  piece  of  matter  of  which  inertia  is  a  primary 
and  inseparable  property.  “  Matter  of  itself  can  not  begin  to 
move,  or  assume  a  quiescent  state  after  being  put  in  motion.”* 
Will  you  tell  us  that  the  fifty-seven  primary  elements  danced  about 
till  the  air  and  sea  and  earth  somehow  jumbled  themselves  to¬ 
gether  into  the  present  shape  of  this  glorious  and  beautiful  world, 
with  all  its  regularity  of  day  and  night,  and  summer  and  winter, 
with  all  its  beautiful  flowers  and  lofty  trees,  with  all  its  variety  of 
birds  and  beasts,  and  fishes?  To  bring  the  matter  down  to  the 
level  of  the  intellect  of  the  most  stupid  Pantheist,  tell  us,  in  plain 
English,  Did  the  paving-stones  make  themselves  ? 

Absurd  as  it  seems  to  every  man  of  common  sense,  there  are 
persons  claiming  to  be  philosophers  who  not  only  assert  that  they 
did,  but  will  tell  you  how  they  did  it.  One  class  of  them  think 
they  have  found  it  out  by  supposing  every  thing  in  the  universe 
reduced  to  very  fine  powder,  consisting  of  very  small  grains,  which 
they  call  atoms ;  or,  if  that  is  not  fine  enough,  into  gas,  of  which 
it  is  supposed  the  particles  are  too  fine  to  be  perceived ;  and  then 
by  different  arrangements  of  these  atoms,  according  to  the  laws  of 
attraction  and  electricity,  the  various  elements  of  the  world  were 
made,  and  arranged  in  its  present  form. 

Suppose  we  grant  this  uncouth  supposition,  that  the  world  mil¬ 
lions  of  ages  ago  existed  as  a  cloud  of  atoms,  does  that  bring  us 
any  nearer  the  object  of  getting  rid  of  a  creator  than  before?  The 
atoms  must  be  material  if  a  material  world  is  to  be  made  from 
them  ;  and  they  must  be  extended  ;  each  one  of  them  must  have 
length,  breadth  and  thickness.  The  Pantheist,  then,  has  only  mul¬ 
tiplied  his  difficulties  a  million  times,  by  pounding  up  the  world 
into  atoms,  which  are  only  little  bits  of  the  paving  stones  he  in¬ 
tends  to  make  out  of  them.  Each  bit  of  the  paving  stone,  no  mat¬ 
ter  how  small  you  break  it,  remains  just  as  incapable  of  making 
itself,  or  moving  itself,  as  was  the  whole  stone  composed  of  all 
these  bits.  So  we  are  landed  back  again  at  the  sublime  question, 
Did  the  paving  stones  make  themselves  ? 

Others  will  tell  you  that  millions  of  years  ago  the  world  existed 
as  a  vast  cloud  of  fire  mist,  which,  after  a  long  time,  cooled  down 
into  granite,  and  the  granite,  by  dint  of  earthquakes,  got  broken 
Up  on  the  surface,  and  washed  with  rain  into  clay  and  soil,  whence 


27 


*  Reid’s  Chemistry ;  Chambers’  Educational  Course,  p.  14,  \  37. 


4 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


plants  sprung  up  of  their  own  accord,  and  the  plants  gradually 
grew  into  animals  of  various  kinds,  and  some  of  the  animals  grew 
into  monkeys,  and  finally  the  monkeys  into  men.  The  fire  mist 
they  stoutly  affirm  to  have  existed  from  eternity.  They  do  not 
allege  that  they  remember  that,  (and  yet  as  they  themselves  are,  as 
they  say,  composed  body  and  soul  of  this  eternal  fire  mist,  they 
ought  to  remember,)  but  only  that  there  are  certain  comets  which 
occasionally  come  within  fifty  or  sixty  millions  of  miles  of  this  earth, 
which  they  suppose  may  be  composed  of  the  fire  mist  which  they 
suppose  this  world  is  made  of.  A  solid  basis,  truly,  on  which  to 
build  a  world  !  A  cloud  in  the  sky  fifty  millions  of  miles  away, 
may  possibly  be  fire  mist,  may  possibly  cool  down  and  condense 
into  a  solid  globe;  therefore,  this  fire  mist  is  eternal,  and  had  no 
need  of  a  creator;  and  our  world,  and  all  other  worlds  may  possi¬ 
bly  have  been  like  it ;  therefore,  they  also  never  were  created  try 
Almighty  God.  Such  is  the  Atheists’  and  Pantheists’  ground  of 
faith.  The  thinnest  vapor,  or  the  merest  supposition,  wrill  suffice  to 
build  his  eternal  salvation  upon ;  provided  only  it  contradicts  the 
Bible,  and  gets  rid  of  God.  We  cannot  avoid  asking  with  as  much 
gravity  as  we  can  command,  Where  did  the  mist  come  from  ?  Did 
the  mist  make  itself?  Where  did  the  fire  come  from  ?  Did  it 
kindle  of  its  own  accord  ?  Who  put  the  fire  and  the  mist  together? 
Was  it  red  hot  enough  from  all  eternity  to  melt  granite?  Then 
why  is  it  any  cooler  now  ?  How  could  an  eternal  red  heat  cool 
down  ?  If  it  existed  as  a  red  hot  fire  mist  from  eternity,  until  our 
Pantheists  began  to  observe  it  beginning  to  cool,  why  should  it  ever 
begin  to  cool  at  all,  and  why  begin  to  cool  just  then  ?  Pill  it  as  full 
of  electricity,  magnetism  and  odyle,  as  you  please;  do  these  afford 
any  reason  for  its  very  extraordinary  conduct  ?  The  utmost  they 
do  is  to  show  you  Jioiv  such  a  change  took  place,  but  they  can 
neither  tell  you  where  the  original  matter  came  from,  nor  why  its 
form  was  changed.  Change  is  an  effect,  and  every  effect  requires 
a  cause.  There  could  be  no  cause  outside  of  the  fire  mist;  for  they 
say  there  was  nothing  else  in  the  universe.  Then  the  cause  must 
be  in  the  mist  itself.  Had  it  a  mind,  and  a  will,  and  a  perception 
of  propriety  ?  Did  the  mist  become  sensible  of  the  lightness  of  its 
behavior,  and  the  fire  resolve  to  cool  off  a  little,  and  both  consult 
together  on  the  propriety  of  dropping  their  erratic  blazing  through 
infinite  space,  and  resolve  to  settle  down  into  orderly,  well-behaved 
euns  and  planets?  In  the  division  of  the  property,  what  became 
28 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


5 


of  the  mind  ?  Did  it  go  to  the  sun,  or  to  the  moon,  or  to  the  pole 
star,  or  to  this  earth?  Or,  was  it  clipped  up  into  little  pieces  and 
divided  among  the  stars  in  proportion  to  their  respective  magni¬ 
tudes  ;  so  that  the  sun  may  have,  say  the  hundredth  part  of  an 
idea,  and  the  moon  a  faint  perception  of  it?  Did  the  fire  mist's 
mind  die  under  this  cruel  clipping  and  dissecting  process  ;  or  is  it 
of  the  nature  of  a  polypus,  each  piece  alive  and  growing  up  to 
perfection  in  its  own  way  ?  Has  each  of  the  planets  and  fixed  stars 
a  great  “  soul  of  the  world"  as  well  as  this  earth,  and  are  they  look¬ 
ing  down  intelligently  and  compassionately  on  this  little  globe  of 
ours  ?  Had  we  not  better  build  altars  to  all  the  host  of  heaven  and 
return  to  the  religion  of  our  acorn-fed  ancestors,  who  burned  their 
children  alive,  in  honor  of  the  sun,  on  Sun-days  ? 

An  aqueous  solution  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  rid  of  Almighty 
God,  is  frequently  proposed.  It  is  known  that  certain  chemical 
solutions,  when  mixed  together,  deposit  a  sediment,  or  precipitate, 
as  chemists  call  it.  And  it  is  supposed  that  the  universe  was  all 
once  in  a  state  of  solution,  in  primeval  oceans,  and  that  the  ming¬ 
ling  of  the  waters  of  these  oceans  caused  them  to  deposit  the  vari¬ 
ous  salts  and  earths  which  form  the  worlds  in  the  form  of  mud, 
which  afterward  hardened  into  rock,  or  vegetated  into  trees  and 
men.  Thus,  it  is  clearly  demonstrated  that  there  is  no  need  for  the 
Creator  if — if — if — we  only  had  somebody  to  make  these  primeval 
oceans - and  somebody  to  mix  them  together!* 

The  development  theory  of  the  production  of  the  human  race 
from  the  mud,  through  the  mushroom,  the  snail,  the  tortoise,  the 
greyhound,  the  monkey,  and  the  man,  which  is  now  such  a  favor¬ 
ite  with  Atheists  and  Pantheists,  if  it  were  fully  proved  to  be  a 
fact,  would  only  increase  the  difficulty  of  getting  rid  of  God.  For 
either  the  primeval  mud  had  all  the  germs  of  the  future  plants  and 
monkeys,  and  men's  bodies,  and  souls,  in  itself,  originally,  or  it  had 
not.  If  it  had  not,  where  did  it  get  them?  If  it  had  all  the  life 
and  intelligence  in  the  universe  in  itself,  it  was  a  very  extraordi¬ 
nary  kind  of  god.  We  shall  call  it  the  mud-god.  Our  Pantheists, 
then,  believe  in  a  god  of  muddy  body  and  intelligent  mind.  But, 

*  Jt  might  be  supposed  that  such  a  theory  is  too  palpably  absurd  to  be  believed  by 
any  save  the  inmates  of  a  lunatic  asylum,  had  not  the  writer  and  hundreds  of  the 
citizens  of  Cincinnati,  seen  a  lecturer  perform  the  ordinary  experiment  of  producing 
colored  precipitates  by  mixing  colorless  solutions,  as  a  demonstration  of  the  self-acting 
powers  of  matter.  Common  sense,  being  a  gift  of  God,  is  righteously  withdrawn  from 
those  who  deny  him. 


20 


6 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


if  they  deny  intelligence  to  the  mud,  then  we  are  back  to  our 
original  difficulty,  with  a  large  appendix,  viz:  The  paving  stones 
made  themselves  frst,  and  all  Pantheists  and  Atheists  afterward. 

But  the  whole  theory  of  development  is  utterly  false  in  its  first 
principles.  From  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  present  day, 
no  man  has  ever  observed  an  instance  of  spontaneous  generation. 
There  is  no  law  of  nature,  whether  electric,  magnetic,  odyiic,  or  any 
other,  which  can  produce  a  living  plant  or  animal  save  from  tno 
germ  or  seed  of  some  previous  plant  or  animal  of  the  same  species. 
Nor  has  a  single  instance  of  the  transmutation  of  species  ever  been 
proved.  Every  beast,  bird,  fish,  insect  and  plant,  brings  forth  after 
its  kind,  and  has  done  so  since  its  creation.  No  law  of  Natural 
Philosophy  is  more  firmly  established  than  this,  That  there  is  no 
spontanco'us  generation  nor  transmutation  of  species.  From  Cuvier 
down,  all  practical  naturalists  maintain  this  law.  It  is  true  thero 
is  a  regular  gradation  of  the  various  orders  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life,  rising  like  the  steps  of  a  staircase,  one  above  the  other;  but  gra¬ 
dation  is  no  more  caused  by  transmutation  than  a  staircase  is  made 
by  an  ambitious  lower  step  changing  itself  into  all  the  upper  ones. 

To  refer  the  origin  of  the  world  to  the  laws  of  nature  is  no  less 
absurd.  Law,  as  Johnson  defines  it,  is  a  rule  of  action.  It  neces¬ 
sarily  requires  an  acting  agent,  an  object  designed  in  the  action, 
means  to  attain  it,  and  authoritative  prescription  of  those  means 
by  a  lawgiver.  Are  the  laws  of  nature,  laws  given  by  some  sup¬ 
posed  intelligent  being,  worshipped  by  the  heathen  of  old  and 
the  Pantheists  of  modern  times  under  that  name?  Or  do  they  sig¬ 
nify  the  orderly  and  regular  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  which  is 
so  manifest  in  the  course  of  all  events?  If,  as  Pantheists  say,  the 
latter,  this  is  the  very  thing  we  want  them  to  account  for.  IIow 
came  the  world  to  be  under  law  without  a  lawgiver?  Where  there 
is  law,  there  must  be  design.  Chance  is  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  idea  of  law.  Where  there  is  design,  there  must,  of  necessity, 
be  a  designer.  Matter  in  any  shape,  stones  or  lightnings,  mud  or 
magnets,  cannot  think,  contrive,  design,  give  law  to  itself  or  any 
thing  else,  much  less  bring  itself  into  existence.  There  is  no 
conceivable  way  of  accounting  for  this  orderly  world  we  live  in 
but  one  or  other  of  these  two:  Either  an  intelligent  being  created 
the  world,  or — The  paving  stones  made  themselves. 

Leaving  these  brutish  among  the  people — who  assert  the  latter — 
to  the  enjoyment  of  their  folly,  let  us  ascertain  what  we  can  know 
30  ’ 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


7 


of  the  great  Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  God  refers  the 
Atheists  and  Pantheists  of  the  Psalmist's  days  to  their  own  bodies 
for  proof  of  his  intelligence,  to  their  own  minds  for  proofs  of  his 
personality,  and  to  their  own  observation  of  the  judgments  of  his 
providence  against  evil  doers  for  proofs  of  his  moral  government. 
Our  text  ascribes  to  him  perception  and  intelligence :  He  that 
planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear  ?  He  that  formed  the  eye,  shall 
he  not  see?  It  does  not  say,  lie  has  an  eye,  or  an  ear,  but  he  has 
that  knowledge  we  acquire  by  those  organs.  And  the  argument  is 
from  the  designed  organ  to  the  designing  maker  of  it,  and  is  per¬ 
fectly  irresistible.  A  blind  god  could  not  make  a  seeing  man.  Let 
us  look  for  a  little  at  a  few  of  the  many  marks  of  design  in  this 
organ  to  which  God  thus  refers  us. 

We  shall  first  observe  the  mechanical  skill  displayed  in  the  form¬ 
ation  of  the  eye,  and  then  the  optical  arrangements,  or  rather  a  few 
of  them,  for  there  are  more  than  eight  hundred  distinct  contriv¬ 
ances  already  observed  by  anatomists  in  the  dead  eye,  while  the 
great  contrivance  of  all,  the  power  of  seeing,  is  utterly  beyond 
their  ken.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  box  made  of  several  pieces  of 
wood  glued  together,  and  covered  on  the  outside  with  leather.  In¬ 
side  it  is  lined  with  cotton,  and  the  cotton  has  a  lining  of  fine  white 
silk.  You  at  once  observe  that  it  is  intended  to  nrotect  some  deli- 

A. 

cate  and  precious  article  of  jewelry,  and  that  the  maker  of  this 
box  must  ha7e  been  acquainted  with  the  strength  of  wood,  the 
toughness  of  leather,  the  adhesiveness  of  glue,  the  softness  and  elas¬ 
ticity  of  cotton,  the  tenacity  of  silk,  and  the  mode  of  spinning  and 
weaving  it,  the  form  of' the  jewel  to  be  placed  in  it,  and  the  dan¬ 
gers  against  which  this  box  would  protect  it — ten  entirely  distinct 
branches  of  knowledge,  which  every  child  who  should  pick  up  such 
a  box  in  the  street  would  unhesitatingly  ascribe  to  its  maker.  Now, 
the  box  in  which  the  eye  is  placed,  is  composed  of  seven  bones 
glued  together  internally,  and  covered  with  skin  on  the  outside, 
lined  with  the  softest  fat,  enveloped  in  a  tissue  compared  with 
which  the  finest  silk  is  only  canvas,  and  the  cavity  is  shaped  so  as 
exactly  to  fit  the  eye,  while  the  brow  projects  over  like  the  roof  of 
a  verandah,  to  keep  off  falling  dust  and  rain  from  injuring  it  while 
the  lid  is  open ;  and  the  eyebrows,  like  a  thatch  sloping  outward, 
conduct  the  sweat  of  the  brow,  by  which  man  earns  his  bread, 
away  around  the  outer  cover,  that  it  may  not  enter  the  eye  and 
destroy  the  sight.  If  it  were  preposterous  nonsense  to  say  that 

31 


8 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


electricity,  or  magnetism,  or  odyle,  contrived  and  made  a  little 
bracelet  box,  or  spectacle  case,  how  much  more  absurd  to  ascribe 
the  making  of  the  cavity  of  the  eye  to  any  such  cause. 

Let  us  next  look  at  the  shape  of  the  eye.  You  observe  it  is 
nearly  round  in  its  section  across,  and  rather  oval  in  its  other  direc¬ 
tion,  and  the  cavity  it  lies  in  is  shaped  exactly  to  fit  it.  Now  there 
are  eyes  in  the  world  angular  and  triangular,  and  even  square ; 
and,  as  you  may  readily  suppose,  the  creatures  which  have  them 
cannot  move  them  ;  to  compensate  for  which  inconvenience,  some 
of  them,  as  the  common  fly,  have  several  hundred.  But,  unless 
our  heads  were  as  large  as  sugar  hogsheads,  we  could  not  be  so 
furnished,  and  we  must  either  have  movable  eyes,  or  see  only  in 
one  direction.  Accordingly,  the  contriver  of  the  eye  has  hung  it 
with  a  hinge.  Now  there  are  various  kinds  of  hinges,  moving  in 
one  direction,  and  the  maker  of  the  eye  might  have  made  a  hinge 
on  which  the  eye  would  move  up  and  down,  or  he  might  have  given 
us  a  hinge  that  would  bend  right  and  left,  in  which  case  we  should 
have  been  able  merely  to  squint  a  little  in  two  directions.  But  to 
enable  one  to  see  in  every  direction,  there  is  only  one  kind  of  hinge 
that  would  answer  the  purpose — the  bail  and  socket  joint — and  the 
Former  of  the  eye  has  hung  it  with  such  a  hinge,  retaining  it  in 
its  place  partly  by  the  projection  of  the  bones  of  the  face,  and 
partly  by  the  muscles  and  the  optic  nerve,  which  is  about  as  thick 
as  a  candlewick,  and  as  tough  as  leather.  Most  of  you  have  seen 
a  ship,  and  know  the  way  in  which  the  yards  are  moved,  and 
turned,  and  squared  by  ropes  and  pulleys.  The  rigging  of  the  eye, 
though  not  so  large,  is  fully  as  curious.  There  is  a  tackle,  called  a 
muscle,  to  pull  it  down  when  you  want  to  look  down ;  another 
tackle  to  pull  it  up  when  you  have  done ;  one  to  pull  to  the  right, 
and  another  to  the  left;  there  is  one  fastened  to  the  eyeball  in  two 
places,  and  geared  through  a  pulley  which  will  make  it  move  in 
any  direction,  as  when  we  roll  our  eyes;  and  the  sixth,  fastened  to 
the  under  side  of  the  eye,  keeps  it  steady  when  we  do  not  need  to 
move  it.  Then  the  eyelids  are  each  provided  with  appropriate 
gearing,  and  need  to  have  it  durable  too,  for  it  is  used  thirty  thou¬ 
sand  times  a  day,  in  fact  every  time  we  wink.  If  God  had  neg¬ 
lected  to  place  these  little  cords  to  pull  up  the  eyelash,  we  should 
all  have  been  in  the  condition  of  the  unfortunate  gentleman 
described  by  Dr.  Nieuwentyt,  who  was  obliged  to  pull  up  his  eye¬ 
lashes  with  his  fingers  whenever  he  wanted  to  see.  There  is,  too, 
32 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF, 


9 


another  admirable  piece  of  forethought  and  skill  displayed  by  the 
Former  of  the  eye,  in  providing  a  liquid  to  wash  it,  and  a  sponge 
to  wipe  it  with,  and  a  waste  pipe,  about  the  size  of  a  quill,  through 
the  bone  of  the  nose,  to  carry  off  the  tears  which  have  been  used 
in  washing  and  moistening  the  eye.  Now  what  absurdity  to  say 
that  a  law  of  nature,  say  gravity,  or  electricity,  or  magnetism,  has 
such  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  mechanics  as  the  eye  pro¬ 
claims  its  Former  to  have — that  it  could  make  a  choice  among  mul- 
titudes  of  shapes  of  eyes  and  kinds  of  joints,  and  this  choice  the 
very  best  for  our  convenience  ;  and  that  having  known  and  chosen, 
it  could  have  manufactured  the  various  parts  of  this  complicated 
machine.  Such  a  machine  requires  an  intelligent  manufacturer ; 
and  yet  we  have  only  as  yet  been  looking  at  the  dead  eye,  paying 
no  regard  to  sight  at  all.  Even  a  blind  man’s  eye  proves  an  intel¬ 
ligent  creator.  v. 

Let  us  now  turn  our 
thoughts  to  the  instrument 
of  sight.  The  optic  nerve 
is  the  part  of  the  eye 
which  conveys  visions  to 
the  mind.  Suppose,  in¬ 
stead  of  being  where  you 
observe  it,  at  the  back 
part  of  the  eye,  it  had 
been  brought  out  to  the 
front,  and  that  reflections 
from  objects  had  fallen 
directly  upon  it.  It  is 
obvious  that  it  would  have 
been  exposed  to  injury  from  every  floating  particle  of  dust,  and  you 
would  always  have  felt  such  a  sensation  as  is  caused  by  a  burn  or 
scald  when  the  skin  peels  off  and  leaves  the  ends  of  the  nerves 
exposed  to  the  air.  The  tender  points  of  the  fibres  of  the  optic 
nerve,  too,  would  soon  become  blunted  and  broken,  and  the 
eye,  of  course,  useless.  How,  then,  is  the  nerve  to  be  protected, 
and  yet  the  sight  not  obstructed.  If  it  were  covered  with  skin,  as 
the  other  nerves  are,  you  could  not  see  through  it.  For  thousands 
of  years  after  men  had  eyes  and  used  them,  they  knew  no  sub¬ 
stance  at  once  hard  and  transparent,  which  could  answer  the 
double  purpose  of  protection  and  vision.  And,  to  this  day,  they 
3  33 


10 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


know  none  hard  enough  for  protection,  clear  enough  for  vision,  and 
elastic  enough  to  resume  its  form  after  a  blow.  But  men  did  the 
best  they  could,  and  put  a  round  piece  of  brittle  but  transparent 
glass  in  a  ring  of  tougher  metal  for  the  protection  of  the  hands 
of  a  watch ;  and  he  who  first  invented  the  watch  crystal  thought 
he  had  made  a  discovery.  Now  observe  in  the  eye ;  that  forward 
part  is  the  watch  glass ;  the  cornea,  made  of  a  substance  at  once 
hard,  transparent,  and  elastic — which  man  has  never  been  able  to 
imitate — set  into  the  sclerotica,  that  white,  muscular  coat  which 
constitutes  the  white  of  your  eye,  acts  as  a  frame  for  the  cornea, 
and  answers  another  important  purpose,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

But,  supposing  the  end  of  the  nerve  protected  by  the  glass,  we 
might  have  had  it  brought  up  to  the  glass  without  any  interposing 
lenses  or  humors,  as,  in  fact,  is  nearly  the  case  with  some  Crusta¬ 
cea.  We  cannot  well  imagine  all  the  inconveniences  of  such  an 
eye  to  us.  If  we  could  see  distinctly  at  all,  we  could  not  see  much 
farther  or  wider  than  the  breadth  of  the  end  of  the  nerve  at  once. 
Our  sight  would  then  be  very  like  that  faculty  of  perceiving  colors 
by  the  points  of  the  fingers,  which  some  persons  are  said  to  possess. 
In  that  case,  seeing  would  only  be  a  nicer  kind  of  groping,  and  our 
eyes  would  be  more  conveniently  fixed  on  the  points  of  our  fingers; 
or,  as  with  many  insects,  on  the  ends  of  long  antennae.  Such  a 
form  of  eye  is  precisely  suited  to  the  wants  of  an  animal  which  has 
not  an  idea  beyond  its  food,  which  has  no  business  with  any  object 
too  large  for  its  mouth,  and  whose  great  concern  is  to  stick  to  a 
rock  and  catch  whatever  animalculae  the  water  floats  within  the 
grasp  of  its  feelers.  But  for  a  being  whose  intercourse  should  be 
with  all  the  works  of  God,  and  whose  chief  end  in  such  intercourse 
should  be  to  behold  the  Creator  reflected  in  his  works,  it  was  mani¬ 
festly  necessary  to  have  a  wider  and  larger  range  of  vision ;  and, 
therefore,  a  different  form  of  eye.  Both  these  objects,  breadth  of 
field  combined  with  length  of  range,  are  obtained  by  placing  the 
optic  nerve  at  the  back  of  the  e3Te,  and  interposing  several  lenses, 
through  which  objects  are  observed.  By  this  arrangement  a  visual 
angle  is  secured,  and  all  objects  lying  within  it  are  distinctly  visi¬ 
ble  at  the  same  time.  This  faculty  of  perceiving  several  objects  at 
the  same  time  is  a  special  property  of  sight  which  tends  greatly  to 
enlarge  our  conceptions  of  the  knowledge  of  Him  who  gave  it.  A 
man  who  never  saw  can  have  no  idea  of  it.  He  cannot  taste  two 
separate  tastes  at  once;  nor  smell  two  distinct  smells  at  once;  nor 
34 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


11 


feel  more  than  one  object  with  each  hand  at  once;  and  if  he  hears 
several  sounds  at  the  same  time,  they  either  flow  into  each  other, 
making  a  harmony,  or  confuse  him  with  their  discord.  Yet  we  are  all 
conscious  that  we  see  a  vast  variety  of  distinct  and  separate  objects 
at  one  glance  of  our  eyes.  I  think  it  is  manifest  that  the  Former 
of  such  an  eye  not  only  intended  its  owner  to  observe  such  a  vast 
variety  of  objects,  but  from  the  capacity  of  his  own  sight  to  infer 
the  vastly  wider  range  of  vision  of  Him  who  gave  it. 

Besides  the  breadth  of  the  field  of  vision,  we  also  require  length 
of  range  for  the  purpose  of  life.  The  thousand  inconveniences 
which  the  short-sighted  man  so  painfully  feels  are  obvious  to  all. 
Yet  it  may  tend  to  reconcile  such  to  their  lot  to  know  that  thous¬ 
ands  of  the  liveliest  and  merriest  of  God’s  creatures  cannot  see  an 
inch  before  them.  Small  birds  and  insects,  which  feed  on  very 
minute  insects,  need  eyes  like  microscopes  to  find  them;  while  the 
eagle  and  the  fish-hawk,  which  soar  up  till  they  are  almost  out  of 
sight,  can  distinctly  see  the  hare  or  the  herring  a  mile  below  them, 
and  so  must  have  eyes  like  telescopes.  We,  too,  need  to  observe 
minute  objects  very  closely,  as  when  we  read  fine  print,  or  when  a 
lady  threads  a  fine  needle  at  microscope  range  ;  but,  if  confined  to 
that  range,  we  could  not  see  our  friends  across  the  room,  or  find  our 
way  to  the  next  street.  Again,  in  traveling  we  need  to  see  objects 
miles  away,  and  at  night  we  see  the  stars  millions  of  miles  away; 
but  then,  if  confined  to  the  long  range,  we  should  be  strangers  at 
home,  and  never  get  within  a  mile  of  any  acquaintance.  Now, 
how  to  combine  these  two  powers,  of  seeing  near  objects  and  dis¬ 
tant  ones  with  the  same  eye,  is  the  problem  which  the  maker  of  the 
eye  had  to  solve.  Let  us  look  how  man  tried  to  solve  it.  A  mag¬ 
nifying  lens  will  collect  the  rays  from  any  distant  object,  and  con¬ 
vey  them  to  a  point  called  the  focus.  Then  suppose  we  put  this 
glass  in  the  tube  of  an  opera-glass,  or  pocket  spy-glass,  and  look 
through  the  eye-hole  and  the  concave  lens,  properly  adjusted,  in 
front  of  it,  we  shall  see  the  image  of  the  object  considerably  mag¬ 
nified.  But  suppose  the  object  draws  very  near,  we  see  nothing 
distinctly;  for  the  rays  reflected  from  it,  which  were  nearly  paral¬ 
lel  while  it  was  at  a  distance,  are  no  longer  so  when  it  comes  near, 
but  scatter  in  all  directions,  and  those  which  fall  on  the  lens  are 
collected  at  a  point  much  nearer  to  the  lens  than  before,  and  the 
eye-glass  must  be  pushed  forward  to  that  focus.  Accordingly,  you 
know  that  the  spy-glass  is  made  to  slide  back  and  forward,  and  the 

3.5 


12 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


telescope  has  a  screw  to  lengthen  or  shorten  the  tube  according  to 
the  distance  of  the  objects  observed.  Another  way  of  meeting  the 
ease  would  be  by  taking  out  the  lens  and  putting  in  one  of  less 
magnifying  power,  a  flatter  lens,  for  the  nearer  object.  Now,  at 
first  sight,  it  would  seem  a  very  inconvenient  thing  to  have  eyes 
drawing  out  and  in  several  inches  like  spy-glasses,  and  still  more 
inconvenient  to  have  twenty  or  thirty  pairs  of  eyes,  and  to  need  to 
take  out  our  eyes  and  put  in  a  new  set  twenty  times  a  day.  The 
ingenuity  of  man  has  been  at  work  hundreds  of  years  to  discover 
some  other  method  of  adapting  an  optical  instrument  to  long  and 
short  range,  but  without  success.  Now,  the  Former  of  the  eye  knew 
the  properties  of  light  and  the  properties  of  lenses  before  the  first 
eye  was  made;  he  knew  the  mode  of  adjusting  them  for  any  dis¬ 
tance,  from  the  thousands  of  millions  of  miles  between  the  eye  and 
the  star,  to  the  half  inch  distance  of  the  mote  in  the  sunbeam;  and 
he  has  not  only  availed  himself  of  both  the  principles  which  opti¬ 
cians  discovered,  but  has  executed  his  work  with  an  infinite  perfec¬ 
tion  which  bungling  men  may  admire,  but  can  never  imitate.  The 
sclerotic  coat  of  the  eye,  and  the  choroid  which  lies  next  it,  are  full 
of  muscles  which,  by  their  contraction,  both  press  back  the  crystal¬ 
line  lens  nearer  the  retina,  and  also  flatten  it;  the  vitreous  humor, 
in  which  the  crystalline  lens  lies,  a  fine,  transparent  humor,  about 
as  thick  as  the  white  of  an  egg,  giving  way  behind  it,  and  also 
slightly  altering  its  form  and  power  of  refraction  to  suit  the  case. 
Thus,  that  which  the  astronomer,  or  the  microscopist,  performs  by 
a  tedious  process,  and  then  very  imperfectly,  we  perform  perfectly, 
easily,  instantly,  and  almost  involuntarily,  with  that  perfect  com¬ 
pound  microscope  and  telescope  invented  by  the  Former  of  the 
human  eye.  Surely,  in  giving  us  an  instrument  so  admirably  fitted 
for  observing  the  lofty  grandeur  of  the  heavens  and  the  lowlier 
beauties  of  the  earth,  he  meant  to  allure  us  to  the  discovery  of  the 
perfections  of  the  great  Designer  and  Former  of  all  these  wondrous 
works. 

But  there  is  another  contrivance  in  the  eye,  adapted  to  lead  us 
further  to  the  consideration  of  the  extent  of  the  knowledge  of  its 
power.  We  are  placed  in  a  world  of  variable  lights,  of  day  and 
night,  and  of  all  the  variations  between  light  and  darkness.  Wo 
cannot  see  in  the  full  blaze  of  light,  nor  yet  in  utter  darkness. 
Had  the  eye  been  formed  to  bear  only  the  noon-day  glare,  we 
had  been  half  blind  in  the  afternoon,  and  wholly  so  in  the 
36 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF, 


13 


evening.  If  the  eye  were  formed  so  as  to  see  at  night,  we  had  been 
helpless  as  owls  in  the  day.  But  the  variations  of  light  in  the 
atmosphere  may  be  in  some  measure  compensated,  as  we  know,  by 
regulating  the  quantity  admitted  to  our  houses — shutting  up  the  win¬ 
dows.  When  we  wish  to  regulate  the  admission  of  light  to  our  rooms, 
we  have  recourse  to  various  clumsy  contrivances;  paper  blinds, 
perpetually  tearing,  sunblind  rollers  that  will  not  roll,  Venetian 
blinds  continually  in  need  of  mending,  awnings  blowing  away 
with  every  storm,  or  shutters,  which  shut  up  and  leave  us  in  entire 
darkness.  A  self-acting  window  which  shall  expand  with  the 
opening  of  light  in  the  mornings  and  evenings,  and  close  up  of  its 
own  accord  as  the  light  increases  toward  noon,  has  never  been  manu¬ 
factured  by  man.  But  the  Former  of  the  eye  took  note  of  the 
necessities  and  conveniences  of  the  case,  and  besides  giving  a  pair 
of  shutters  to  close  up  when  we  go  to  sleep,  he  has  given  the  most 
admirable  sunblinds  ever  invented.  The  nerve  of  the  e}*e  at  the 
back  of  its  chamber  can  not  see  without  light,  and  its  light  comes 
through  the  little  round  window  called  the  pupil,  or  black  of  the 
eye — which  is  simply  a  hole  in  the  iris,  or  colored  part.  Now  this 
iris  is  formed  of  two  sets  of  muscles  :  one  set  of  elastic  rings, 
which,  when  left  to  themselves,  contract  the  opening  ;  and  another 
set  at  right  angles  to  them,  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  pulling  the 
inner  edge  of  the  iris  in  all  directions  to  the  outside.  In  fact  it  is 
not  so  much  a  sunblind,  as  a  self-acting  window,  opening  and 
closing  the  aperture  according  to  our  need  of  light,  and  doing 
this  so  instantaneously  that  we  are  not  sensible  of  the  process. 

It  is  self  evident  that  the  Maker  of  such  an  eye  was  acquainted 
with  the  properties  of  light  and  the  alternations  of  night  and  day, 
as  well  as  with  the  mechanical  contrivances  for  adjusting  the  eye 
to  these  variable  circumstances.  He  has  given  us  an  eye  capable 
of  seeking  knowledge  among  partial  darkness ;  and  of  availing 
itself  for  this  purpose  of  imperfect  light — an  apt  symbol  of  our 
mental  constitution  and  moral  situation  in  a  world  whoce  good  and 
evil,  light  and  darkness,  mix  and  alternate. 

Perhaps  some  one  is  ready  to  ask,  what  is  the  use  of  so  many 
lenses  in  the  eye  ?  It  seems  as  if  the  crystalline  lens  and  the  optic 
nerve  were  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  sight,  with  the  cornea 
simply  to  protect  them.  What  is  the  use  of  the  aqueous  humor 
and  the  vitreous  humor  ? 

Light,  when  refracted  through  a  lens,  becomes  separated  into 

37 


14 


DID  THE  WORLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


its  component  colors — red,  yellow,  green,  blue,  and  violet;  and  tho 
greater  the  magnifying  power  of  the  lens,  and  the  brighter  the 
object  viewed,  the  greater  the  dispersion  of  the  rays.  So  that  if 
the  crystalline  lens  of  the  eye  alone  were  used,  we  should  see  every 
white  object  bluish  in  the  middle,,  and  yellowish  and  reddish  at 
the  edges ;  or,  in  vulgar  language,  we  should  see  starlight. 

This  difficulty  perplexed  Sir  Isaac  Newton  all  his  life,  and  he 
never  discovered  the  mode  of  making  a  refracting  telescope  which 
would  obviate  it.  But  M.  Dolland,  an  optician,  reflecting  that  the 
very  same  difficulty  must  have  presented  itself  to  the  Maker  of  the 
eye,  determined  to  ascertain  how  he  had  obviated  it.  He  found 
that  the  Maker  of  the  eye  had  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  different 
substances  have  different  powers  of  refracting  or  bending  the  rays 
of  light  which  pass  through  them,  and  that  liquids  have  generally 
a  different  power  of  refraction  from  solids.  For  instance,  if  you 
put  a  straight  stick  in  water,  the  part  under  water  will  seem  bent 
at  a  considerable  angle,  while  if  you  put  the  stick  through  a  little) 
hole  in  a  pane  of  glass  it  will  not  seem  near  so  much  bent.  He> 
further  discovered  that  oil  of  cassia  had  a  different  power  of 
refraction  from  water,  and  the  white  of  an  egg  still  a  different 
power.  lie  discovered  also  that  the  first  lens  of  the  eye,  tho 
aqueous  humor,  is  very  like  water — that  the  crystalline  lens  is  a\ 
firm  jelly — and  that  the  vitreous  humor  is  about  the  consistenco 
of  the  white  of  an  egg.  The  combination  of  these  three  lenses  of 
different  poAvers  of  refraction,  secures  the  correction  of  their 
separate  errors.  He  could  not  make  telescope  lenses  of  jelly,  nor 
water ;  therefore,  he  could  not  make  a  perfect  achromatic  telescope, 
but  he  learned  the  lesson  of  mutual  compensations  of  difficultie* 
which  the  Maker  of  the  eye  teaches  the  reflecting  anatomist,  and 
procuring  flint  and  crown  glass  of  different  degrees  of  refraction, 
he  arranged  them  in  the  achromatic  lens  so  as  nearly  to  remedy 
the  defect. 

I  think  you  will  at  once  admit  that  Dolland’s  attempt  to  remedy 
the  evils  of  confused  sight  in  the  telescope,  indicated  a  desire  to 
obtain  a  precise  and  correct  vieAV  of  objects ;  and  that  his  success 
in  constructing  an  instrument  nearly  perfect  for  the  use  of  astrono¬ 
mers,  gave  evidence  that  he  himself  had  a  clear  idea  of  that  perfect 
and  accurate  vision  which  he  thus  attempted  to  bestoAv  on  them. 
Shall  we  then  imagine  any  inaccuracy  in  the  sight  of  Him,  Avho 
not  only  desired,  but  executed,  and  bestoAved  on  us  an  instru- 
38 


DIO  THE  WORLD  MAKF  TSELF. 


15 


ment  so  perfectly  adapted  to  the  imperfections  of  this  lower 
world,  and  whose  very  imperfections  are  the  materials  from  which 
He  produces  clear  and  perfect  vision?  No!  in  God’s  eye  there  are 
no  chromatic  refractions  of  passion,  or  prejudice,  or  party  feeling, 
or  self-love.  He  sees  by  no  reflected  or  refracted  light.  0  Father 
of  Light!  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  or  shadow  of  turning, 
open  our  eyes  to  behold  thee  clearly  ! 

Our  text  thus  leads  us  to  a  knowledge  of  God’s  character,  from 
the  structure  of  the  bodies  he  has  given  us.  lie  that  formed  my 
eye  sees.  Though  my  feeble  vision  is  by  no  means  a  standard  or 
limit  for  his  omniscience,  yet  I  may  conclude  that  every  perfection 
of  the  power  of  sight  He  has  given  me,  existed  previously  in  Him. 
Has  he  endowed  me,  a  poor  puny  mortal,  the  permanent  tenant  of 
only  two  yards  of  earth,  with  an  eye  capable  of  ranging  over 
earth’s  broad  plains  and  lofty  mountains — of  traversing  her  beau¬ 
teous  lakes  and  lovely  rivers — of  scanning  her  crowded  cities,  and 
inspecting  all  their  curious  productions — and  specially  delighting 
to  investigate  the  bodily  forms  of  men,  and  their  mental  characters 
displayed  on  the  printed  page?  Has  He  given  me  the  principle 
of  curiosity,  without  which  such  an  endowment  were  useless? 
Then  most  undoubtedly  He  has  Himself  both  the  desire  to  observe 
all  the  works  of  his  hands,  and  the  power  to  gratify  that  desire. 
The  Former  of  the  eye  must  of  necessity  be  the  great  Observer. 

Wheresoever  an  eye  is  found  of  His  handy-work,  and  wheresoever 
sight  is  preserved  by  His  skill,  let  the  owner  of  such  an  instrument 
know  that  if  he  can  see,  God  can,  and  as  surely  as  he  sees,  God 
does. 

If  it  is  possible  for  us  to  behold  many  objects  distinctly  at  once, 
it  is' not  impossible  for  God  to  behold  more.  If  He  has  given  us 
an  eye  to  look  from  earth  to  heaven,  then  His  eye  sees  from  heaven 
to  earth.  If  I  can  see  accurately,  God’s  inspection  is  much  more 
impartial.  And  if  He  has  given  rne  the  power  of  adjusting  my 
imperfect  vision  to  the  varying  lights  and  shades  of  this  changing 
scene,  let  me  not  dream  for  a  moment  that  He  is  destitute  of  a 
corresponding  power  of  investigating  difficulties,  and  penetrating 
darknesses,  and  bringing  to  light  hidden  works  and  secret  things. 
God  is  light.  In  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.  Neither  is  there  any 
creature  that  is  not  manifest  in  His  sight,  but  all  things  are  naked 
and  opened  to  the  eyes  of  Him  with  whom  I  have  to  do.  He  has 
Been  all  my  past  life — my  faults,  my  follies,  and  my  crimes. 

39 


16 


DID  THE  W»RLD  MAKE  ITSELF. 


When  I  thought  myself  in  darkness  and  privacy,  God’s  eye  was 
upon  me  there.  In  the  turmoil  of  business  God’s  eye  was  upon  me. 
In  the  crowd  of  my  ungodly  companions  God’s  eye  was  upon  me. 
In  the  darkness  and  solitude  of  night  God’s  eye  was  upon  me. 
And  God’s  eye  is  on  me  now,  and  will  follow  me  from  this  house, 
and  will  watch  me  and  observe  all  my  actions,  on — on — on — while 
God  lives,  and  wheresoever  God’s  creation  extends. 

“0  God,  thou  hast  searched  and  known  me; 

Thou  knowest  my  down-sitting  and  mine  up-rising ; 

Thou  understandest  my  thoughts  afar  off. 

Thou  compassest  my  path  and  my  lying  down, 

And  art  acquainted  with  all  my  ways. 

For  there  is  not  a  word  in  my  tongue, 

But,  lo !  0  Lord,  thou  knowest  it  altogether. 

Thou  hast  beset  me  behind  and  before,  and  laid  thine  hand  upon 
me. 

Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me  ! 

It  is  high,  I  cannot  attain  unto  it. 

Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit? 

And  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there, 

If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there ! 

If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 

And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea, 

Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 

And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 

If  I  say,  ‘  surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me/ 

Even  the  night  shall  be  light  about  me ; 

Yea  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee, 

But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day  ; 

The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee.” 


IVo.  34. 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD, 


Pantheism  is  that  perversion  of  reason  and  language  which 
denies  God’s  personality,  and  calls  some  imaginary  soul  of  the 
world,  or  the  world  itself,  by  his  name.  While  Pantheisls  are 
fully  agreed  upon  the  propriety  of  getting  rid  of  a  God  who  could 
note  their  conduct,  and  call  them  to  account  for  it  hereafter,  and 
who  would  claim  to  exercise  any  authority  over  them  here,  they 
fire  by  no  means  agreed,  either  in  India,  Germany,  or  America,  as 
oO  what  they  shall  call  by  his  name.  Public  opinion  necessitates 
fihem  to  say  they  believe  in  a  God,  but  almost  every  one  has  his 
,)wn  private  opinion  as  to  what  it  is.  We  shall  speak  of  it  as  we 
Iiear  it  pronounced  from  the  lips  of  its  prophets,  here,  as  well  as  in 
the  writings  of  its  expounders,  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Some  of 
them  declare,  that  it  is  some  absolutely  unknown  cause  of  all  the 
phenomena  of  the  universe,  and  others,  that  it  is  the  universe 
itself.  A  large  class  speak  of  it  as  the  great  soul  of  the  world, 
while  the  more  materialistic  regard  it  as  the  world  itself,  body  and 
soul ;  the  soul  being  the  source  of  all  the  imponderable  forces,  such 
as  gravitation,  heat,  light,  electricity,  magnetism,  galvanism,  vege¬ 
table  and  animal  life,  and  especially  the  mesmeric  influence,  of 
which  many  of  them  regard  intellect  as  a  modification  ;  and  the 
body  being  the  sum  of  all  the  ponderable  substances,  such  as  air, 
water,  earth,  minerals,  vegetables,  and  bodies  of  animals  and  men. 
This  creed  is  popularly  expressed  in  the  sentence  so  often  heard, 
“God  is  every  thing,  and  every  thing  is  God.”  But  this  vast 
generalization  of  all  things  into  the  higher  unity — this  exalting  of 
monkeys,  men,  snails,  and  paving  stones  to  the  same  level  of  divin¬ 
ity — by  no  means  meets  the  views  of  the  more  unphilosophical 
and  aspiring  gods  and  goddesses,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  so 
impartial.  To  deify  a  man  and  his  cat  by  the  same  process,  is  not 
much  of  a  distinction  to  the  former;  and  of  what  advantage  is  it  to 
be  made  a  god,  if  he  does  not  thereby  obtain  some  distinction? 
This  levelling  apotheosis  is  generally  confined  to  the  German 
Pantheists,  of  whom  there  are  multitudes  in  this  city.  Their 
more  ambitious  American  brethren  ascribe  the  contented  humility 
which  accepts  it,  to  the  continual  influence  of  the  fumes  of  tobacco 
and  lager  beer.  Man — the  soul  of  man — is  the  great  divinity  of 
41 


2  IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 

our  American  Pantheists.  “The  doctrine  of  the  soul — first  soul, 
and  second  soul,  and  evermore  soul ”* — is  the  doctrine  which  is  to 
regenerate  the  world.  God,  in  their  view,  is  nothing  till  he  attains 
self  consciousness  in  mah.  “  The  universal  does  not  attract  us  till 
housed  in  the  individual.  Who  heeds  the  Waste  abyss  cf  possi¬ 
bility?  Standing  on  the  bare  ground,  my  head  bathed  by  the 
blithe  air,  and  uplifted  into  infinite  space,  all  mere  egotism 
vanishes.  The  currents  of  the  universe  being  circulate  through 
me,  I  am  part  or  particle  of  God.”  “I  stand  here  to  say,  ‘Let  us 
worship  the  mighty  and  transcendent  soul/”*  “God  attains  to 
self  consciousness  only  in  the  human  soul.”  “Honor  yourself.” 
“Reverence  your  own  individuality.”  “The  soul  of  man  is  the 
highest  intelligence  in  the  universe.”  Such  are  the  dogmas  which, 
under  the  name  of  Positive  Philosophy,  are  poured  forth  oracularly, 
unsupported  by  reason  or  argument,  by  the  prophets  of  the  new 
dispensation — the  last  and  highest  achievement  of  the  human 
intellect. 

It  is  very  unfortunate,  however,  for  the  honor  of  the  prophets  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  that  this  profound  discovery  was  invented 
and  illustrated,  patented  and  peddled,  by  the  Hindoos,  among  the 
people  of  India,  two  thousand  years  before  the  divinity  had 
struggled  into  self  consciousness  in  the  mighty  and  transcendent 
souls  of  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  Strauss — of  Atkinson,  Parker,  or 
Emerson.  We  mean  to  show  in  this  lecture,  that  it  is  an  Anti¬ 
quated,  Hypocritical,  Demoralizing  Atheism. 

1.  Pantheism  is  an  Antiquated  Heresy. — It  has  rotted  and  putri- 
fied  among  the  worshippers  of  cats  and  monkeys,  and  holy  bulls, 
and  bits  of  sticks  and  stones,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  for  more 
than  twro  thousand  years ;  yet  it  is  now  hooked  up,  out  of  its  dung¬ 
hill,  and  hawked  about  among  Christian  people,  as  a  prime  new 
discovery  of  modern  philosophy,  for  getting  rid  of  Almighty  God. 
As  the  Hindoo  Shasters  are  undoubtedly  the  sources  from  which 
French,  German,  and  American  philosophers  have  borrowed  their 
dogmas,  without  leave  or  acknowledgment;  and  as  is  generally 
the  case  with  depredators,  they  have  not  had  time  to  take  the 
whole  system,  we  shall  gratify  and  edify  the  public  by  a  view  of 
this  sublime  theology,  as  exhibited  in  the  writings  of  the  Positive 
Philosophers  of  India. 


42 


”  Emerson. 


IS  GOD  E\  ERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD.  3 

“When  existing  in  the  temporary  imperfect  state  of  Sagun, 
Brahm  (the  Pantheist  deity)  wills  to  manifest  the  universe.  For 
this  purpose  he  puts  forth  his  omnipotent  energy,  which  is  vari¬ 
ously  styled  in  the  different  systems  now  under  review.  He  puts 
forth  his  energy  for  what?  For  the  effecting  of  a  creation  out  of 
nothing?  “No,”  says  one  of  the  Shasters,  but  to  “produce  from 
his  oxen  divine  substance  a  multiform  universe .”  By  the  sponta¬ 
neous  exertion  of  this  energy  he  sends  forth,  from  his  own  divine 
substance,  a  countless  host  of  essences,  like  innumerable  sparks 
issuing  from  the  blazing  fire,  or  myriads  of  rays  from  the  resplen¬ 
dent  sun.  These  detached  portions  of  Brahm — these  separated 
divine  essences — soon  become  individuated  systems,  destined,  in 
time,  to  occupy  different  forms  prepared  for  their  reception ; 
whether  these  be  fixed  or  movable,  animate  or  inanimate, 
forms  of  gods  or  men,  forms  of  animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral  ex¬ 
istences.” 

“Having  been  separated  from  Brahm  in  his  imperfect  state  of 
Sagun,  they  carry  along  with  them  a  share  of  those  principles, 
qualities,  and  attributes  that  characterize  that  state,  though  predo¬ 
minating  in  very  different  degrees  and  proportions:  either  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  respective  capacities,  or  the  retributive  awards  of  an 
sternal  ordination.  Amongst  others  it  is  specially  noted,  that  as 
Brahm  at  that  time  had  awakened  into  a  consciousness  of  his  own 
existence,  there  does  inhere  in  each  separated  soul  a  notion,  or  a 
conviction,  of  its  own  distinct,  independent,  individual  existence. 
Laboring  under  this  delusive  notion,  or  conviction,  the  soul  has  lost 
the  knowledge  of  its  own  proper  nature — its  divine  origin,  and 
ultimate  destiny.  It  ignorantly  regards  itself  as  an  inferior  entity, 
instead  of  knowing  itself  to  be  what  it  truly  is :  a  consubstantial ; 
though  it  may  be  an  infinitesimally  minute  portion  of  the  great 
whole,  a  universal  spirit. 

“Each  individual  soul  being  thus  a  portion  of  Brahm,  even  as  a 
spark  is  of  fire,  it  is  again  and  again  declared  that  the  relation 
between  them  is  not  that  of  master  and  servant,  ruler  and  ruled, 
but  that  of  whole  and  part !  The  soul  is  pronounced  to  be  eternal 
a  parte  ante;  in  itself  it  has  had  no  beginning  or  birth,  though  its 
separate  individuality  originated  in  time.  It  is  eternal  a  parte 
post ;  it  will  have  no  end — no  death  ;  though  its  separate  individu¬ 
ality  will  terminate  in  time.  Its  manifestation  in  time  is  not  a 
creation;  it  is  an  effluence  from  the  eternal  fount  of  spirit.  Its 

43 


4 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


disappearance  from  the  stage  of  time  is  not  an  extinction  of 
essence — a  redaction  to  nonentity ;  it  is  only  a  refluence  into  its 
original  source.  As  an  emanation  from  the  supreme,  eternal 
spirit,  it ^ is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  Neither  can  it  be 
said  to  be  of  finite  dimensions  ;  on  the  contrary,  says  the  sacred 
oracle,  “  being  identified  with  the  Supreme  Brahm,  it  participates 
in  his  infinity.” 

“After  having  enumerated  all  the  elementary  principles,  atoms, 
and  qualities  successively  evolved  from 'Brahm,  one  of  the  sacred 
writings  states,  that  though  each  of  these  had  distinct  powers,  3ret 
they  existed  separate  and  disunited,  without  order  or  harmonious 
adaptation  of  parts  ;  that  until  they  were  duly  combined  together, 
it  was  impossible  to  produce  this  universe,  or  animated  beings; 
and  that  therefore  it  was  requisite  to  adopt  other  means  than  fortu¬ 
itous  chance  for  giving  them  an  appropriate  combination,  and 
symmetrical  arrangement.  The  Supreme,  accordingly,  produced 
an  egg,  in  which  the  elementary  principles  might  be  deposited,  and 
nurtured  into  maturity.”  “  All  the  primary  atoms,  qualities,  and 
principles — the  seeds  of  future  worlds — that  had  been  evolved 
from  the  substance  of  Brahm,  were  now  collected  together,  and 
deposited  in  the  newly  produced  egg.  And  into  it,  along  with 
them,  entered  the  self-existent  himself,  under  the  assumed  form  of 
Brahma ;  and  then  he  sat  vivifying,  expanding,  and  combining  the 
elements,  a  whole  year  of  the  creation,  or  four  thousand  three 
hundred  millions  of  solar  years  !  During  this  amazing  period,  the 
wondrous  egg  floated  like  a  bubble  on  the  abyss  of  primeval 
waters,  increasing  in  size,  and  blazing  refulgent  as  a  thousand 
suns.  At  length  the  Supreme,  who  dwelt  therein,  burst  the  shell 
of  the  stupendous  egg,  and  issued  forth  under  a  new  form,  with  a 
thousand  heads,  a  thousand  eyes,  and  a  thousand  arms.  Along 
with  him  there  issued  forth  another  form,  huge  and  measureless. 
What  could  that  be?  All  the  elementary  principles  having  now 
been  matured,  and  disposed  into  an  endless  variety  of  orderly 
collocations,  and  combined  into  one  harmonious  whole,  they  darted 
into  visible  manifestation  under  the  form  of  the  present  glorious 
universe !  A  universe  now  finished,  and  ready  made,  with  its 
entire  apparatus,  of  earth,  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  What,  then,  is 
this  multiform  universe?  It  is  but  a  harmoniously  arranged 
expansion  of  primordial  pi'inciples  and  qualities.  And  whence  are 
these  ?  Educed  or  evolved  from  the  divine  substance  of  Brahm. 
44 


/ 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD.  5 

Hence  it  is  that  the  universe  is  so  constantly  spoken  of,  even  by 
mythologists,  as  a  manifested  form  of  Brahm  himself,  the  supreme, 
invisible  spirit.  Hence,  too,  under  the  notion  that  it  is  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  a  being  who  may  assume  every  variety  of  corporeal 
form,  is  the  universe  often  personified,  or  described  as  if  its  differ¬ 
ent  parts  were  only  the  different  members  of  a  person,  of  prodigious 
magnitude,  in  human  form.  It  is  declared  that  the  hairs  of  his 
body  are  the  trees  of  the  forest ;  of  his  head,  the  clouds ;  of  his 
beard,  the  lightning.  His  breath  is  the  circling  atmosphere ;  his 
voice,  the  thunder ;  his  eyes,  the  sun  and  moon ;  his  veins,  the 
rivers  ;  his  nails,  the  rocks  ;  his  bones,  the  lofty  mountains  !”* 

“The  substantial  fabrics  of  all  worlds  having  now  been  framed 
and  fitted  up  as  the  destined  abodes  of  different  orders  of  being, 
celestial,  terrestrial,  and  infernal,  the  question  next  arises,  How  or 
by  whom  were  produced  the  various  organized  forms  which  these 
orders  of  being  were  designed  to  animate?  Though  hosts  of 
subtle  essences  or  souls  flowed  forth  from  Brahm,  all  of  these 
remain  inactive  till  united  to  some  form  of  materialism.  From 
this  necessity  the  gods  themselves  are  not  exempted.  While  the 
souls  of  men,  and  other  inferior  spirits,  must  be  encased  in  taber¬ 
nacles  fashioned  out  of  the  grosser  elements,  the  souls  of  the  gods, 
and  all  other  superior  spirits,  must  be  made  to  inhabit  material 
forms,  composed  of  one  or  other  of  the  infinitely  attenuated  and 
invisible  rudimental  atoms  that  spring  direct  from  the  principle  of 
consciousness.” 

“  Interminable  as  are  the  incoherencies,  inconsistencies,  and  ex¬ 
travagancies  of  the  Hindoo  sacred  writings,  on  no  subject,  perhaps, 
is  the  multiplicity  of  varying  accounts  and  discrepancies  more 
astonishing  than  on  the  present.  Volumes  could  not  suffice  to 
retail  them  all.  Brahma’s  first  attempts  at  the  production  of  the 
forms  of  animated  beings,  were  as  eminently  unsuccessful  as  they 
were  various.  At  one  time  he  is  said  to  have  performed  a  long  and 
severe  course  of  ascetic  .devotions,  to  enable  him  to  accomplish  his 
wish ;  but  in  vain ;  at  another,  inflamed  by  anger  and  passion  at 
his  repeated  failures,  he  sat  down  and  wept ;  and  from  the  stream¬ 
ing  tear-drops  sprang  into  being,  as  his  first  boon,  a  progeny  of 
ghosts  and  goblins,  of  an  aspect  so  loathsome  and  dreadful,  that 
he  was  ready  to  faint  away.  At  one  time,  after  profound  medita- 


*  Duff’s  India,  pp.  99 — 114. 


45 


6 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


tion,  different  beings  spring  forth:  one  from  his  thumb,  another 
from  his  breath,  a  third  from  his  ear,  a  fourth  from  his  side.  But 
enough  of  such  monstrous  legends. ”* 

There,  now,  reader,  you  have  the  original  of  the  Development 
Theory,  with  vestiges  of  oreation  enough  to  make  half  a  dozen 
new  infidel  cosmogonies,  besides  the  genuine  original  of  Pantheism., 
from  its  native  soil.  Our  western  Pantheists  will  doubtless  rever¬ 
ence  their  venerable  progenitors  ;  and,  should  the  remainder  of  the 
family  find  their  way  here  in  a  year  or  two,  via  Germany,  the 
public  will  be  better  prepared  to  give  a  fitting  reception  to  such 
distinguished  visitors,  including  their  suite  cf  divine  bulls  and  holy 
monkeys — their  lustrations  of  cow  dung,  extatic  hook  swingings, 
burning  of  widows,  and  drowning  of  children,  and  other  Positive 
Philosophies,  from  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  What  an  outrage 
on  decency  for  such  men  to  call  themselves  philosophers  and 
Christians! 

2.  Pantheism  is  a  system  of  deception  and  hypocrisy. — Has  any 
man  a  right  to  pervert  the  English  language,  by  fixing  new  mean¬ 
ings  to  words,  entirely  different  from  and  contrary  to  those  in 
common  use?  If  he  knows  the  meaning  of  the  words  he  uses,  and 
uses  them  to  convey  a  contrary  meaning,  he  is  a  deceiver.  The 
name  God,  used  as  a  proper  name,  in  the  English  tongue,  means 
“  the  Supreme  Being ;  Jehovah ;  the  Eternal  and  Infinite  Spirit, 
the  Creator  and  Sovereign  of  the  Universe.”  f  If,  then,  a  man 
says  he  believes  in  God,  but  when  forced  to  explain  what  he  means 
by  that  name,  says  he  means  steam,  heat,  electricity,  galvanism, 
magnetism,  mesmeric  force,  odyle,  animal  life,  the  soul  of  man,  or 
the  sum  of  all  the  intelligencies  in  the  universe,  he  is  a  deceiver, 
and  vain  talker,  abusing  language  to  conceal  his  impiety.  Panthe¬ 
ism  is  simply  Jesuitical  Atheism.  Willing  to  dethrone  Jehovah, 
but  unable  and  unwilling  to  place  any  other  being  in  his  stead,  as 
Creator  and  ltuler  of  the  universe,  yet  conscious  that  mankind  will 
never  embrace  open  Atheism,  Pantheists  profess  to  believe  in  God, 
only  that  they  may  steal  his  name  to  cloak  their  Atheism.  We, 
in  common  with  all  who  believe  in  God,  demand,  that,  as  their 
divinity  is,  by  their  own  confession,  essentially  different  from  God, 
they  shall  use  a  different  word  to  describe  it.  Let  them  call  it 
Brahm,  as  their  brethren  in  India  do,  or  any  other  name  not 


*  Duff’s  India,  p.  119. 


46 


f  Webster’s  Dictionary. 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD.  Y 

appropriated  to  any  existing  being  in  heaven  or  earth,  or  under 
the  earth ;  and  let  them  cease  to  profane  religion,  and  insult 
common  sense,  by  affixing  the  holy  name  of  the  Supreme  to  their 
thousand-headed  monster. 

.Rut  the  very  perfection  of  Jesuitism  is  reached,  when  Pantheists 
profess  their  high  respect  for  the  Christian  religion.  They  do  not 
generally  speak  of  it  as  a  superstition,  though  some  of  the  vulgar 
sort  do ;  nor  do  they  decry  its  mysteries,  as  Deists  are  in  the  habit 
of  doing;  nor,  as  Socinians,  and  Unitarians,  and  nationalists, 
attempt  to  reduce  it  to  a  mere  code  of  morals.  They  grant  it  to  be 
the  highest  development  of  humanity  yet  reached  by  the  majority 
of  the  human  race.  The  brute,  the  savage,  the  polytheistic  idolator, 
the  star  worshipper,  the  monotheist,  the  Christian,  are  all,  in  their 
scheme,  so  many  successive  developments  of  humanity  in  its 
upward  progress.  There  is  only  one  step  higher  than  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  that  is  Pantheism.  Well  knowing  that  Christianity  is 
diametrically  opposed  to  their  falsehoods,  and  that  the  Bible,  every 
where,  teaches  that  the  progress  of  man  has  ever  been  down  from  a 
state  of  holiness  to  idolatry  and  barbarism,  they  have  yet  the  hardi¬ 
hood  to  profess  respect  for  it,  as  a  system  of  concealed  Pantheism, 
and  to  clothe  their  abominations  in  Scripture  language.  They 
speak,  for  instance,  of  the  “  beauty  of  holiness  in  the  mind,  that 
has  surmounted  every  idea  of  a  personal  God;”  and  of  “God 
dwelling  in  us,  and  his  love  perfected  in  us,”  when  they  believe 
that  he  dwells  as  really  in  every  creature :  in  that  hog,  for  instance. 
Then  they  will  readily  acknowledge  that  the  Bible  is  inspired. 
They  can  accept — that  is  the  phrase — they  can  accept  the  book 
which  denounces  death  upon  those  fools  who,  “professing  them¬ 
selves  to  be  wise,  change  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and  worship 
and  serve  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,”  as  merely  a  mystic 
revelation  of  the  Pantheism  which  leaves  man  to  “erect  every  thing 
into  a  God,  provided  it  is  none:  sun,  moon,  stars,  a  cat,  a  monkey, 
an  onion,  uncouth  idols,  sculptured  marble ;  nay,  a  shapeless  trunk, 
which  the  devout  impatience  of  the  idolator  does  not  stay  to  fashion 
into  the  likeness  of  a  man,  but  gives  it  its  apotheosis  at  once.” 
Oh,  yes ;  they  accept  the  Bible  as  inspired — a  God-inspired  book — 
inasmuch  as  every  product  of  the  human  mind  is  a  development  of 
Deity.  The  Bible,  then,  when  we  have  the  matter  fully  explained, 
is  quite  on  a  level  with  Gulliver’s  Travels,  or  Emerson’s  Address  to 
a  Senior  Class  of  Divinity. 


47 


8 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


There  is  nothing,  however,  in  this  vast  system  of  monstrosities, 
which  fills  the  soul  of  a  Christian  with  such  loathing  and  detesta¬ 
tion,  as  to  hear  Pantheists  profess  their  veneration  for  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  claim  him  as  a  teacher  of  Pantheism.  If  there  is  one 
object  which  they  detest  with  all  their  hearts,  it  is  the  Judge  of 
the  quick  and  dead,  and  the  vengeance  which  he  shall  take  upon 
them  that  know  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  Gospel.  Any  allusion 
to  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  fills  them  with  fury,  and  cause* 
them  to  pour  forth  awful  blasphemies.  They  know  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  repeatedly  declared  himself  the  judge  of  the  living  and  the 
dead — that  “the  hour  is  coming  in  which  all  that  are  in  their 
graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  :  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have  done 
evil,  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation  ;”  and  that  the  very  last 
sentence  of  his  public  discourses  is,  “  And  these  (the  wicked)  shall 
go  away  into  everlasting  punishment ;  but  the  righteous  into  lif  I 
eternal.”  When  they  drop  the  mask  for'  a  moment,  they  cai\ 
accuse  apostles  and  disciples  with  “  dwelling  with  noxious  ex¬ 
aggeration  about  the  person  of  Christ.”*  Christ,  as  revealed  in 
the  Gospel,  they  hate  with  a  perfect  hatred.  But  when  it  becomes 
necessary  to  address  Christians,  and  beguile  them  into  the  deceit¬ 
fulness  of  Pantheism,  the  tune  is  changed.  Chri.st  becomes  the 
model  man — “  one  conceived  in  conditions  favorable  to  the  highest 
perfectibility  of  the  individual  consciousness  ;  and^so  possessed  of 
powers  of  generalization  far  in  advance  of  the  age  in  which  he 
lived.  They  can  listen  to  and  honor  one  of  the  best  expounders  of 
God  and  nature  in  the  Man  of  Nazareth.”  f  The  vilest  falsehoods 
of  Pantheism  are  ascribed  to  Jesus,  that  those  who,  ignorant 
of  his  doctrine,  yet  respect  his  name,  may  be  seduced  to  receive 
them.  Of  him  who  declared,  “Out  of  the  heart  of  man  proceed 
evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  thefts,  false  witness,  blasphe¬ 
mies,”  they  have  the  hardihood  to  declare,  “  He  saw  with  open 
eyes  the  mystery  of  the  soul ;  alone,  in  all  history,  he  estimated 
the  greatness  of  man.”  Calculating  upon  that  ignorance  of  the 
teaching  of  Christ  which  is  so  general  among  their  audiences, 
they  dare  to  represent  the  only  begotten  Sou  of  God  as  teaching 


*  Emerson’s  Address  to  a  Senior  Class  in  Divinity.  , 

f  Ilennell’s  Christian  Theism,  which  shows  how  Theists  of  every  nation — Christian, 
Jew,  Mahommedan,  or  Chinese — can  meet  upon  common  ground. 

48 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


9 


Pantheism:  “One  man  was  true  to  what  is  in  vou  and  me; 
lie  saw  that  God  incarnates  himself  in  man,  and  evermore  goes 
forth  anew  to  take  possession  of  his  world.  He  said  in  this 
jubilee  of  sublime  emotion,  ‘I  am  divine.  Through  me  God  acts; 
through  me,  speaks.  Would  you  see  God,  see  me ;  or  see  thee 
•when  thou  also  thinkest  as  I  now  think/  Because  the  indwelling 
Supreme  Spirit  cannot  wholly  be  got  rid  of,  the  doctrine  of  it 
suffers  this  perversion,  that  the  divine  nature  is  attributed  to  one 
or  two  persons,  and  denied  to  all  the  rest,  and  denied  with  fury.” 
Yes,  truly,  the  divine  nature  is  emphatically  denied  to  all  unregen¬ 
erated  men,  and  denied,  too,  by  that  divine  teacher  thus  eulogized. 
Hear  him :  “  Ye  do  the  deeds  of  your  father.  Then  said  they  to 
him,  ‘We  be  not  born  of  fornication;  we  have  one  Father,  even 
God/  Jesus  said  unto  them,  ‘If  God  were  your  Father,  ye  would 
love  me ;  for  I  proceeded  forth  and  came  from  God ;  neither  came  I 
of  myself,  but  he  sent  me.  Why  do  ye  not  understand  my  speech? 
Even  because  ye  cannot  hear  my  word.  Ye  are  of  your  father, 
the  devil ;  and  the  works  of  }Tour  father  ye  will  do.  He  was  a 
murderer  from  the  beginning,  and  abode  not  in  the  truth,  because 
there  is  no  truth  in  him.  When  he  speaketh  a  lie,  he  speaketh  it 
of  his  own  ;  for  he  is  a  liar,  and  the  father  of  it.” 

Let  Pantheists,  then,  cease  to  wind  their  serpent  coils  around 
Christianity,  and  to  defile  the  Bible  with  their  filthy  lickings.  The 
Lord  Jesus  will  not  suffer  such  persons  to  bear  even  a  true  testi¬ 
mony  to  him,  and  his  followers  will  not  permit  them  to  ascribe 
their  falsehoods  to  him,  without  reproof.  Let  them  stand  out  and 
avow  themselves  the  enemies  of  Christ  and  his  gospel,  as  they  are, 
and  cease  their  abominable  pretences  of  giving  to  the  world  the 
ultimate  development  of  Christianity.  What  concord  hath  Christ 
with  Belial  ? 

3.  Pantheism  is  a  system  of  Immorality .  —  It  loosens  all  the 
sanctions  of  moral  law.  If  there  is  any  one  point  upon  which  all 
Pantheists  are  agreed,  it  is  in  the  denial  of  the  resurrection,  the 
judgment,  and  the  future  punishment  of  the  wicked.  Their  whole 
system,  in  all  its  range,  from  Spiritualism  to  Phrenology,  is  ex¬ 
press’^  invented  to  get  rid  of  God’s  moral  government.  If  man  is 
the  highest  intelligence  in  the  universe,  to  whom  should  he  render 
an  account  of  his  conduct?  Or  who  would  have  any  right  to  call 
him  to  account?  Then,  if  we  are  developments  of  deity,  deity 
cannot  offend  against  itself.  Further,  if  our  development,  both  of 
4  49 


10 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


"body  and  mind,  be  the  inevitable  result  of  the  laws  of  nature — of 
our  organization  and  our  position — man  is  but  the  creature  of  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and,  therefore,  as  is  abundantly  argued,  cannot  be 
made  responsible  for  laws  and  their  results,  over  which  he  has 
no  control.  “  I  am  what  I  am.  I  cannot  alter  mv  will,  or  be 
other  than  what  I  am,  and  cannot  deserve  either  reward  or  punish¬ 
ment/-’*  Before  hundreds  of  the  citizens  of  Cincinnati,  a  lecturer 
publicly  denied  the  right  of  either  God  or  man  to  invade  his  indi¬ 
viduality,  by  taking  vengeance  upon  him  for  any  crime  whatever. 
Thousands,  who  are  not  yet  Pantheists,  are  so  far  infected  with 
the  poison  that  they  utterly  deny  any  right  of  vindictive  punish¬ 
ment  to  God  or  man. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Again  and  again  have  we  listened  with 
astonishment  to  men,  declaring  that  there  was  no  moral  law — no 
standard  of  right  and  wrong,  but  the  will  of  the  community.  Of 
course  it  was  quite  natural,  after  such  a  declaration,  to  assert  that  a 
wife  who  should  remain  with  a  husband  of  inferior  intcllectualitv, 
or  unsuitable  emotions,  was  committing  adultery ;  that  private 
property  is  a  legalized  robber}'- ;  and  that  when  a  citizen  becomes 
mentally  or  physically  unfit  for  the  business  of  life,  he  confers  the 
highest  obligation  on  society,  and  performs  the  highest  duty  to 
himself,  by  committing  suicide,  and  thus  returning  to  the  great 
ocean  of  being  !  . 

We  might  think  that  confusion  of  right  and  wrong  could  not  be 
worse  confounded  than  this ;  yet  there  is  a  blacker  darkness  still. 
The  distinction  between  good  and  evil  is  absohdely  denied.  The 
Hindoo  Pantheists  declare  that  they  cannot  sin,  because  they  are 
God,  and  God  cannot  offend  against  himself ;  there  is  no  sin — it  is 
all  may  a — delusion.  So  the  American  and  English  school  tells 
us  it  lives  only  in  the  obsolete  theology.  “  Evil,  we  are  told,  is 
good  in  another  way,  we  are  not  skilled  in.”  f  So  says  the  author 
of  “Representative  Men.”  “  Evil,”  according  to  old  philosophers,' 
“is  good  in  the  making;  that  pure  malignity  can  exist,  is  the 
extreme  proposition  of  unbelief.  It  is  not  to  be  entertained  by  a 
rational  agent.  It  is  Atheism  ;  it  is  the  last  profanation.”  “The 
divine  effort  is  never  relaxed ;  the  carrion  in  the  sun  will  convert 
itself  into  grass  and  flowers  ;  and  man,  though  in  brothels,  or  jails, 
or  on  gibbets,  is  on  his  way  to  all  that  is  good  and  true.”  §  Were 

*  Atkinson’s  Letters,  p.  190.  f  Festus,  p.  48. 

g  Swedenborg,  or  the  Mystic  (quoted  by  Pierson,  41),  p.  68. 


50 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


11 


these  only  the  ravings  of  lunatics,  or  the  dreamings  of  philoso¬ 
phers,  we  should  never  have  hunted  them  from  their  hiding-places 
to  scare  your  visions ;  hut  these  doctrines  are  weekly  propounded 
in  your  own  city,  and  throughout  our  land,  from  platform  and 
press,  to  thousands  of  your  children  and  their  school-teachers,  of 
your  workmen  and  your  lawgivers,  to  your  wives  and  daughters. 
Again  and  again  have  our  ears  been  confounded  in  the  squares  of 
New  York,  and  the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  market-places 
of  Cincinnati,  by  the  boisterous  cry,  What  is  sin  f  There  is  no 
sin.  It  is  all  an  old  story.  Let  men  who  fear  no  God,  but  who 
have  lives,  and  wives,  and  property  to  lose,  look  to  it,  and  say  if 
they  act  wisely  in  giving  their  influence  to  a  system  which  lands 
in  such  consequences.  Let  them  devise  some  religion  for  the 
people  which  will  preserve  the  rights  of  man,  while  giving  license 
to  trample  upon  the  rights  of  God  ;  or,  failing  in  the  effort,  let  them 
acknowledge  that  the  enemy  of  God  is,  and  of  necessity  must  be, 
the  foe  of  all  that  constitutes  the  happiness  of  man.  Impiety  and 
immorality  are  wedded  in  heaven’s  decree,  and  man  cannot  sunder 
them. 

4.  Pantheism  is  virtually  Atheism. — It  may  scarce  seem  needful 
to  multiply  proofs  on  this  head.  How  can  any  one  imagine  a  being 
composed  of  the  sum  of  all  the  intelligences  of  the  universe? 
Such  a  thing,  or  combination  of  things,  never  was  distinctly  con¬ 
ceived  of  by  any  intelligent  being.  Can  intelligences  be  com¬ 
pounded,  or,  like  bricks  and  mortar,  piled  upon  each  other?  If 
they  could,  did  these  finite  intelligences  create  themselves  ?  If 
the  soul  of  man  is  the  highest  intelligence  in  the  universe,  did  the 
soul  of  man  create,  or  does  the  soul  of  man  govern  it?  Shall  wo 
adore  his  soul?  Some  Pantheists  have  got  just  to  this  length.  M. 
Comte  declares,  that  “At  this  present  time,  for  minds  properly 
familiarized  with  true  astronomical  philosophy,  the  heavens  display 
no  other  glory  than  that  of  Hipparchus,  or  Kepler,  or  Newton,  and 
of  all  who  have  helped  to  establish  these  laws.”  Establish  these 
laws  !  Laws  by  which  the  heavenly  bodies  were  guided  thousands 
of  years  before  Kepler  or  Newton  were  born.  Shall  we  then  adore 
the  souls  of  Kepler  and  Newton?  M.  Comte  has  invented  a  reli¬ 
gion,  which  he  is  much  displeased  that  the  admirers  of  his  Positive 
Philosophy  will  not  accept,  in  which  the  children  are  to  be  taught 
to  worship  idols,  the  youth  to  believe  in  one  God,  if  they  can,  after 
such  a  training  in  infancy,  and  the  full  grown  men  are  to  adore  a 

51 


12  IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 

Grand  Etre,  “the  continuous  resultant  of  all  the  forces  capable  of 
voluntarily  concurring  in  the  universal  perfectioning  of  the  world, 
not  forgetting  ovr  v;  or  thy  auxiliaries,  the  animals .”  *  Our  Anglo- 
Saxon  Pantheists,  however,  are  not  quite  philosophical  enough  yet 
to  adore  the  mules  and  oxen,  and  therefore  refuse  worship  alto¬ 
gether.  “  Work  is  worship,”  constitutes  their  liturgy.  “As  soon 
as  the  man  is  as  one  with  God,  he  will  not  beg.  He  will  then  see 
prayer  in  all  action.”!  “  Labor  wide  as  earth  has  its  summit  in 
heaven.  Sweat  of  the  brow,  and  up  from  that  to  sweat  of  the 
brain,  sweat  of  the  heart ;  which  includes  all  Kepler  calculations, 
Newton  meditations,  all  sciences,  all  spoken  epics,  all  acted  hero¬ 
isms,  martyrdoms,  up  to  that  agony  of  bloody  sweat,  which  all 
men  have  accounted  divine  !  0  brother,  if  this  is  not  worship,  then 

I  say,  the  more  pity  for  worship  ;  for  this  is  the  noblest  thing  yet 
discovered  under  God’s  sky.”  “No  man  has  worked,  or  can 
work,  except  religiously.”!  “Adieu,  0  church!  Thy  road  is 
that  way,  mine  is  this.  In  God’s  name,  adieu!”  § 

Such  is  the  theory.  How  faithfully  acted  out,  you  can  learn 
from  the  thousands  who  are  now,  publicly,  upon  God’s  holy 
Sabbath,  working  religiously  upon  the  bridge  that  is  to  span  the 
river,  or  less  ostentatiously  in  their  shops  and  work-rooms  through¬ 
out  the  city.  Within  a  circle  of  three  miles  radius  of  the  spot  you 
now  occupy,  one  hundred  thousand  intelligent  beings  in  this 
Christian  city  worship  no  God. 

The  abstraction,  which  the  Pantheist  calls  God,  is  no  object  of 
worship.  It  is  not  to  be  loved.  If  it  does  good,  it  could  not  help 
it,  and  did  not  intend  it.  It  is  not  to  be  thanked  for  benefits.  It, 
the  sum  of  all  the  intelligence  of  the  universe,  cannot  be  collected 
from  the  seven  spheres  to  receive  any  such  acknowledgment.  It 
cannot  deviate  from  its  fated  course  of  proceeding ;  therefore,  says 
the  Pantheist,  why  should  I  pray?  It  neither  sees  his  conduct, 
nor  cares  for  it ;  and  he  denies  any  right  to  call  him  to  account. 
It  did  not  create  him,  does  not  govern  him,  will  not  judge  him, 
cannot  punish  him.  It  is  no  object  of  love,  fear,  worship,  or  obe¬ 
dience.  It  is  no  god.  He  is  an  Atheist.  He  believes  not  in  any 
God. 

Hear,  0  Israel  !  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord.  He  is 


*  Politique  Positive,  vol.  2,  p.  60.  f  Emerson. 

J  Carlyle — Past  and  Present.  g  Carlyle — Life  of  Sterling, 

52 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


13 


distinct  from,  and  supreme  over  all  liis  works.  He  now  rules, 
and  will  hereafter  judge  all  intelligent  creatures,  and  will  render 
to  every  one  according  to  his  works. 

1.  Reason  declares  it.  The  world  did  not  make  itself.  The  soul 
of  man  did  not  make  itself.  The  body  of  man  did  not  make  itself. 
They  must  have  had  an  intelligent  Creator,  who  is  God.  God  is 
known  by  his  works  to  be  distinct  from  them,  and  superior  to 

them.  The  work  is  not  the  workman.  The  house  is  not  the 
builder.  The  watch  is  not  the  watchmaker.  The  sum  of  all  the 
works  of  any  worker  is  not  the  agent  who  produced  them.  Let  an 
architect  spend  his  life  in  building  a  city,  yet  the  city  is  not  the 
builder.  The  maker  is  always  distinct  from  and  superior  to  the 
thing  made.  You  and  I,  and  the  universe,  are  made.  Our  Maker, 

then,  is  distinct  from,  and  superior  to  us.  One  plan  gives  order  to 
the  universe ;  therefore,  one  mind  originated  it.  The  Creator  is 
over  all  his  creatures. 

2.  Our  consciousness  confirms  it.  If  a  blind  God  could  not 
make  a  seeing  man,  a  god  destitute  of  the  principle  of  self-con- 
ociousness  (if  such  an  abuse  of  language  may  be  tolerated  for  a 
moment)  could  not  impart  to  man  the  conviction,  I  am, — the  ine¬ 
radicable  belief  that  I  am  not  the  world,  nor  any  other  person  ; 
much  less,  every  body  ;  but  that  I  am  a  person,  possessed  of  powers 
of  knowing,  thinking,  liking  and  disliking,  judging,  approving  of 
right,  and  disapproving  of  wrong,  and  choosing  and  willing  my 
conduct.  My  Maker  has  at  least  as  much  common  sense  as  he  has 
given  me.  He  that  teacheth  man  knowledge,  shall  he  not  know? 

3.  Our  Ignorance  and  Weakness  demand  a  Governor  of  the 
World  wiser  than  ourselves.  The  soul  of  man  is  not  the  highest 
intelligence  in  the  universe.  It  cannot  know  the  mode  of  its  own 
operation  on  the  body  it  inhabits,  much  less  the  plan  of  the  world’s 
management.  Man  may  know  much  about  what  does  not  concern 
him,  and  about  things  over  which  he  has  no  control  ;  but  it  is  the 
will  of  God  that  his  pride  should  feel  the  curb  of  ignorance  and 
impotence  where  his  dearest  interests  are  concerned,  that  so  he 
may  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  God  is  greater  than  man. 
He  may  be  able  to  tell  the  place  of  the  distant  planets  a  thousand 
years  hence,  but  he  cannot  tell  where  himself  shall  be  next  year, 
lie  can  calculate  for  years  to  come  the  motions  of  the  tides,  which 
he  cannot  control,  but  cannot  tell  how  his  own  pulse  shall  beat, 
or  whether  it  shall  beat  at  all,  to-morrow.  Ever  as  his  knowledge 

53 


14 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


(  f  tlie  laws  by  which  God  governs  the  world,  increases,  his  convic¬ 
tion  of  his  impotence  grows  ;  and  he  sees  and  feels  that  a  wiser 
head  and  stronger  hand  than  that  of  any  creature,  planned  and 
administers  them.  Ever  as  he  reaches  some  ultimate  truth,  such 
as  the  mystery  of  electricity,  of  light,  of  life,  of  gravitation, 
which  he  can  not  explain,  and  beyond  which  he  can  not  penetrate, 
he  hears  the  voice  of  God  therein,  demanding  him  to  acknowledge 
his  impotence. 

“  Where  is  the  way  where  light  dwelleth, 

“  And  as  for  darkness,  what  is  the  place  thereof? 

“  Canst  thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades, 

“  Or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  ? 

“  Canst  thou  bring  forth  Mazzaroth  in  his  seasons  ? 

“Or  canst  thou  guide  Arcturus,  with  his  sons? 

“  Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of  heaven? 

“  Canst  thou  set  the  dominion  thereof  in  the  earth? 

“  Canst  thou  lift  up  thy  voice  to  the  clouds, 

“  That  abundance  of  waters  may  cover  thee? 

“Canst  thou  rend  lightnings,  that  they  may  go 
“And  say  unto  thee,  ‘Here  we  are?’” 

4.  Our  consciences  convince  us  that  Gocl  is  a  Moral  Governor. 
The  distinction  between  brutes  and  men  is,  that  man  has  a  sense 
of  the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  If  we  find  a  tribe  of 
savages,  or  individuals,  who  indulge  their  appetites  without  rule, 
and  who  do  wrong  without  any  apparent  remorse  or  shame,  we 
designate  them  brutes.  Even  those  who  in  words  deny  any  differ¬ 
ence  between  right  and  wrong,  do  in  fact  admit  its  existence,  by 
their  attempts  to  justify  that  opinion.  Though  weaker,  or  less 
regarded  in  some  than  in  others,  every  man  is  conscious  of  a 
faculty  in  himself  which  sits  in  judgment  on  his  own  conduct,  and 
that  of  others,  approving  or  condemning  it  as  right  or  wrong.  In 
all  lands,  and  in  all  ages,  the  common  sense  of  mankind  has  ac¬ 
knowledged  the  existence  and  moral  authority  of  conscience,  as 
distinct  from  and  superior  to  mere  intellect.  No  language  of  man 
is  destitute  of  words  conveying  the  ideas  of  virtue  and  vice,  of 
goodness  and  wickedness.  When  one  attempts  to  deceive  you  by 
a  wilful  lie,  you  are  sensible  not  only  of  an  intellectual  process  of 
reason  detecting  the  error,  but  of  a  distinct  judgment  of  disappro¬ 
bation  of  the  crime.  When  one,  who  has  received  kindness  from 
a  benefactor,  neglects  to  make  any  acknowledgment  of  it,  cherishes 
54 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD.  15 

no  feelings  of  gratitude,  and  insults  and  abuses  the  friend  wlio 
succored  him,  we  are  conscious,  not  merely  of  the  facts,  as  phe¬ 
nomena  to  be  observed,  but  of  the  ingratitude,  as  a  crime  to  be 
detested.  And  we  are  irresistibly  constrained  to  believe  that  he 
who  taught  us  this  knowledge  of  a  difference  between  right  and 
wrong,  does  himself  know  such  a  distinction  ;  and  that  he  who 
implanted  this  feeling  of  approval  of  right,  and  condemnation  of 
wrong,  in  us,  does  himself  approve  the  right  and  condemn  the 
wrong.  And  as  we  can  form  no  notion  of  right  or  wrong  uncon¬ 
nected  with  the  idea  that  approbation  of  right  conduct  should  be 
suitably  expressed,  and  that  disapprobation  of  wrong  conduct 
ought  also  to  be  suitably  expressed — in  other  words,  that  right 
ought  to  be  rewarded,  and  wrong  ought  to  be  punished — so  we  are 
constrained  to  trace  such  a  connection  from  our  minds  to  the  mind 
of  Him  who  framed  them.  This  conviction  is  God’s  law,  written 
in  our  hearts.  When  we  do  wrong,  we  become  conscious  of  a 
feeling  of  remorse  in  our  consciences,  as  truly  as  the  eye  becomes 
conscious  of  the  darkness.  We  may  blind  the  eye — we  may  sear 
the  conscience — that  the  one  shall  not  see,  nor  the  other  feel ;  but 
light  and  darkness,  right  and  wrong,  will  exist.  The  awful  fact 
which  conscience  reveals  to  us,  that  we  sin  against  God,  that  we 
know  the  right,  and  do  the  wrong,  and  are  conscious  of  it,  and  of 
God’s  disapprobation  of  it,  is  conclusive  proof  that  we  are  not 
only  distinct  from  God,  but  separate  from  him — that  we  oppose 
our  wills  against  his.  And  every  pang  of  remorse  is  a  premoni¬ 
tion  of  God’s  judgment,  and  every  sorrow  and  suffering  which  the 
Governor  of  the  world  has  connected  with  sin — as  the  drunkard’s 
loss  of  character  arid  property,  of  peace  and  happiness,  the  frenzy 
of  his  soul,  and  the  destruction  of  his  body — is  a  type  and  teaching 
of  the  curse  which  he  has  denounced  against  sin. 

5.  The  World’s  History  is  the  record  of  man’s  crimes ,  and  God’s 
punishments.  Once  God  swept  the  human  race  from  earth  with  a 
flood  of  water,  because  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  on  the 
earth.  Again,  he  testified  his  displeasure  against  the  ungodly 
sinners  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  by  consuming  their  cities  with 
fire  from  heaven,  and  leaving  the  Head  Sea  to  roll  its  solemn 
waves  of  warning  to  all  ungodly  sinners,  to  the  end  of  time. 

By  the  ordinary  course  of  his  providence,  ho  has  ever  secured 
the  destruction  of  ungodly  nations.  No  learning,  commerce,  arms, 
territories,  or  skill,  has  ever  secured  a  rebellious  nation  against  the 


16 


IS  GOD  EVERY  BODY,  AND  EVERY  BODY  GOD. 


sword  of  God’s  justice.  Ask  the  black  record  of  a  rebel  world’s 
history  for  an  instance.  Egypt?  Canaan?  Nineveh?  Babylon? 
Persia?  Greece?  Pome?  Where  are  they  now?  Tyre  had 
ships,  colonies,  and  commerce  ;  Rome  an  empire  on  which  the  sun 
never  set ;  Greece  had  philosophy,  arts,  and  liberty  secured  by  a 
confederation  of  republics  ;  Spain  the  treasures  of  earth’s  gold  and 
silver,  and  the  possession  of  half  the  globe.  Did  these  secure  them 
against  the  moral  government  of  God? 

No!  God’s  law  sways  the  universe — that  law  which,  with  the 
brazen  fetters  of  eternal  justice,  binds  together  sin  and  misery, 
crime  and  punishment,  and  lays  the  burden  on  the  backs  of  all 
ungodly  nations,  irresistibly  forcing  them  down — down — down  the 
road  to  ruin.  The  vain  imagination  that  refuses  to  glorify  God  as 
God,  leads  to  darkness  of  heart,  thence  to  Atheism,  thence  to  gross 
idolatry — onward  to  selfish  gratification,  violent  rapacity,  lust  of 
conquest,  and  luxury,  licentiousness,  and  effeminacy  begotten  of 
its  spoils  ;  then  military  tyranny,  civil  war,  servile  revolt,  anarchy, 
famine  and  pestilence,  and  the  sword  of  less  debauched  neigh¬ 
bors,  Christ’s  iron  scepter,  hurl  them  down  from  the  pinnacle  of 
greatness,  to  dash  them  in  pieces  against  each  other,  in  the  valley 
of  destruction  ;  and  there  they  lie,  wrecks  of  nations — ruins  of 
empires — naught  remaining,  save  some  shivered  potsherds  of 
former  greatness,  to  show  that  once  they  were,  and  were  the  ene¬ 
mies  of  God. 

Oh,  America,  take  warning  ere  it  be  too  late  !  God  rules  the 
nations.  “  lie  that  chastiseth  the  heathen,  shall  he  not  correct 
you  ?  ” 

A  day  of  retribution,  reader,  comes  to  you.  Neither  your  insig¬ 
nificance  nor  your  unbelief  shall  hide  you  from  his  eye,  nor  can 
your  puny  arm  shield  you  from  his  righteous  judgment.  Ilis 
hand  shall  find  out  his  enemies.  Oh,  fiy  from  the  wrath  to  come! 


IYo.  25. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE, 


Religion-  consists  of  the  knowledge  of  a  number  of  great  facts, 
and  a  course  of  life  suitable  to  them.  We  have  seen  three  of 
these;  that  God  created  the  world;  that  He  governs  it ;  and  that 
He  is  able  to  conquer  His  enemies.  There  are  others  of  the  same 
sort  as  needful  to  be  known.  Our  knowledge  of  these  facts,  or  our 
ignorance  of  them,  makes  not  the  slightest  difference  in  the  facts 
themselves.  God  is,  and  heaven  is,  and  hell  is,  and  sin  leads  to  it, 
whether  any  body  believes  these  things  or  not.  It  makes  no  sort  of 
difference  in  the  beetling  cliff  and  swollen  flood  that  sweeps  below 
it,  that  the  drunken  man  declares  there  is  no  danger,  and  refusing 
the  proffered  lantern,  gallops  on  toward  it  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night.  But  when  the  mangled  corpse  is  washed  ashore,  every  one 
sees  hoAv  foolish  this  man  was  to  be  so  confident  in  his  ignorance 
as  to  refuse  the  lantern,  which  would  have  shown  him  his  danger, 
and  guided  him  to  the  bridge  where  he  might  have  crossed  in  safety. 
Some  of  the  facts  of  religion  lie  at  the  evening  end  of  life’s  jour¬ 
ney — the  darkness  of  death’s  night  hides  them  from  mortal  eye — 
living  men  might  guide  their  steps  the  better  by  asking  counsel  of 
one  who  knows  the  way.  If  they  get  along  no  better  by  their  own 
counsel  in  the  next  world,  than  most  of  them  do  in  this,  they  will 
have  small  cause  to  bless  their  teacher.  Who  can  tell  that  igno¬ 
rance,  and  wickedness,  and  wretchedness  are  not  as  tightly  tied 
together  in  the  world  to  come,  as  we  see  them  here  ? 

Solomon  was  a  knowing  man  and  wise:  and  better  than  that  in 
the  esteem  of  most  people,  he  made  money,  and  tells  you  how  to  make 
it  and  keep  it.  You  will  make  a  hundred  dollars  by  reading  his 
Proverbs  and  acting  on  them.  They  would  have  saved  some  of 
you  many  a  thousand.  Of  course  such  a  man  knew  something  of 
the  world.  He  was  a  wide  awake  trader.  His  ships  coasted  the 
shores  of  Asia  and  Africa,  from  Madagascar  to  Japan;  and  the 
overland  mail  caravans,  from  India  and  China,  drew  up  in  the 
depots  he  built  for  them  in  the  heart  of  the  desert.  He  knew  the 
well-doing  people  with  whom  trade  was  profitable,  and  the  savages 
who  could  only  send  apes  and  peacocks.  He  was  a  philosopher  as 
well  as  a  trader,  and  could  not  help  being  deeply  impressed  with  the 
great  fact,  that  there  was  a  wide  difference  among  the  nations  of  the 

57 


2 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


world.  Some  were  enlightened,  enterprising,  civilized,  and  flour¬ 
ishing  ;  others  were  naked  savages,  living  in  ignorance,  poverty, 
vice,  and  starvation,  perpetually  murdering  one  another,  and  dying 
out  off  the  earth. 

Solomon  noticed  another  great  fact.  In  his  own  country,  and  in 
Chaldea,  Mesopotamia,  Egypt,  and  some  others,  God  had  revealed 
His  will  to  certain  persons  for  the  benefit  of  their  neighbors.  He 
did  so  generally  by  opening  the  eyes  of  these  prophets  to  see  future 
events,  and  the  great  facts  of  the  unseen  world,  and  by  giving  them 
messages  of  warning  and  instruction  to  the  nations.  From  this 
mode  of  revelation,  by  opening  the  prophets’  eyes  to  see  realities 
invisible  to  others,  they  were  called  seers,  and  the  revelations  they 
were  commissioned  to  make  were  called  visions ;  and  revelation 
from  God  was  called  in  general  vision.  Solomon  was  struck  with 
the  fact  that  some  nations  were  thus  favored  by  God,  and  other 
nations  were  not.  The  questions  would  naturally  arise,  Why  this 
difference?  What  difference  does  it  make,  or  does  it  make  any 
difference,  whether  men  have  any  revelation  of  God’s  will  or  not  ? 

Solomon  was  led  to  observe  a  third  great  fact.  The  nations 
which  were  favored  with  these  revelations  were  the  civilized,  enter¬ 
prising,  and  comparatively  prosperous  nations.  In  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  divine  revelation  they  had,  and  their  obedience  to 
it,  they  prospered.  The  nations  that  had  no  revelation  from  God 
were  the  idolatrous  savages,  who  were  sinking  down  to  the  level 
of  brutes,  and  perishing  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  daguerreo¬ 
types  these  three  great  facts  in  the  Proverb :  “  Where  there  is 
no  vision  the  people  perish;  but  he  that  keepeth  the  law,  happy 
is  he.” 

0,  says  the  Rationalist,  the  world  is  wiser  now  than  it  was  in 
Solomon’s  days.  He  lived  in  the  old  mythological  period,  when 
men  attributed  every  thing  extraordinary  to  the  gods.  But  the 
world  is  too  wise  now  to  believe  in  any  supernatural  revelation. 
“  The  Hebrew  and  Christian  religions  like  all  others  have  their 
myths.”  “  The  fact  is,  the  pure  historic  idea  was  never  developed 
among  the  Hebrews  during  the  whole  of  their  political  existence.” 
“  When,  therefore,  we  meet  with  an  account  of  certain  phenomena, 
or  events  of  which  it  is  expressly  stated  or  implied  that  they  were 
produced  immediately  by  God.  himself,  (such  as  divine  apparitions, 
voices  from  heaven,  and  the  like,)  or  by  human  beings  possessed 
of  supernatural  powers,  (miracles,  prophecies,  etc.,)  such  an 
58 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


3 


account  is  so  far  to  be  considered  not  historical.”  “  Indeed,  no  just 
notion  of  the  true  nature  of  history  is  possible  without  a  perception 
of  the  inviolability  of  the  chain  of  finite  causes,  and  of  the  impossi¬ 
bility  of  miracles.”*  A  narrative  is  to  be  deemed  mythical,  1st, 
“  When  it  proceeds  from  an  age  in  which  there  were  no  written 
records,  but  events  were  transmitted  by  tradition ;  2d,  When  it 
presents  as  historical,  accounts  of  events  which  were  beyond  the 
reach  of  experience,  as  occurrences  connected  with  the  spiritual 
world  ;  or  3d,  When  it  deals  in  the  marvelous,  and  is  couched  in 
symbolical  language.”*  So  also  De  Wette,  and  Schelling,  and 
Gabler,  and  a  host  of  others,  who  pass  for  biblical  expositors,  lay 
it  down  as  an  axiom,  that  all  records  of  supernatural  events  are 
mythical,  viz.:  fables,  falsehoods,  because  miracles  are  impossible. 
Of  course,  from  such  premises  the  conclusion  is  easy.  A  revela¬ 
tion  from  God  to  man  is  a  supernatural  event,  and  supernatural 
events  are  impossible ;  therefore,  a  revelation  from  God  is  impos¬ 
sible.  But  it  would  have  been  much  easier,  and  quite  as  logical,  to 
have  laid  down  the  axiom  in  plain  words  at  first,  that  a  revelation 
from  God  is  impossible,  as  to  argue  it  from  such  premises  ;  for  it 
is  just  as  easy  to  say ,  that  a  revelation  from  God  is  impossible,  as 
to  say  that  miracles  are  impossible  ;  and  as  for  proof  of  either  one 
or  the  other,  we  must. just  take  their  word  for  it. 

One  cannot  help  being  amazed  at  the  cool  impudence  with  which 
these  men  take  for  granted  the  very  point  to  be  proved,  and  set 
aside,  as  unworthy  of  serious  .examination,  the  most  authentic 
records  of  history,  simply  because  they  do  not  coincide  with  their 
so-called  philosophy ;  and  at  the  credulity  with  which  their  followers 
swallow  this  arrogant  dogmatism,  as  if  it  were  self-evident  truth. 
Let  us  look  at  it  for  a  moment.  Other  religions  have  their  myths, 
or  fables,  therefore,  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  records  are  fables, 
says  the  Rationalist.  Profundity  of  logic !  Counterfeit  bank  bills 
are  common,  therefore  none  are  genuine.  “  The  fact  is,  the  pure 
historic  idea  was  never  developed  among  the  Hebrews,”  i.  e.,  Moses 
and  the  prophets  were  all  liars.  That  is  the  fact,  you  may  take  my 
word  for  it.  “Indeed,  no  just  notion  of  the  true  nature  of  history 
is  possible  without  a  perception  of  the  inviolability  of  the  chain  of 
finite  causes,  and  of  the  impossibility  of  miracles,” — which  trans¬ 
lated  into  plain  words  is  simply  this:  No  man  can  understand 


*  Straus’  Life  of  Jesus,  G4,  74,  87. 


f  Bauer’s  Hebrew  Mythology. 

59 


4 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


history  who  believes  in  God  Almighty.  “  A  narrative  is  to  be 
deemed  fabulous  when  it  proceeds  from  an  age  in  which  there  were 
no  written  records/7  such,  for  instance,  as  any  account  of  the 
creation  of  the  first  man — for  no  event  could  possibly  happen 
unless  there  was  a  scribe  there  to  write  it.  Or,  of  the  fall  of  man 
— we  do  not  know  that  Adam  was  able  to  write,  and  no  man  can 
tell  truth  unless  he  writes  a  history.  “A  narrative  is  to  be  deemed 
fabulous  when  it  presents  as  historical,  accounts  of  events  which 
were  beyond  the  reach  of  experience,  as  events  connected  with  the 
spiritual  world/7  Is  it  not  self-evident  that  you  and  I  have  had 
experience  of  every  thing  in  the  whole  universe,  and  whoever  tells 
us  any  thing  which  we  have  never  seen  is  a  liar.  “  When  a  narra¬ 
tive  deals  in  the  marvelous/7  such  as  Xenophon’s  Retreat  of  the 
Ten  Thousand,  Herodotus7  narratives  of  the  battles  of  Marathon 
and  Thermopylae,  or  Gibbon’s  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  dealing  as  it  does  in  such  marvelous  accounts  as  the  death 
of  half  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire  in  the  reign  of  Galerius,  or 
any  other  history  of  any  wonderful  occurrence — -it  is  of  course  a 
myth.  Does  not  every  one  know  that  nothing  marvelous  ever 
happened,  or  if  it  did,  would  any  historian  trouble  himself  to  record 
a  prodigy?  “Or,  if  it  is  couched  in  symbolical  language/7  as  is 
every  eloquent  passage  in  Thucydides,  Robertson,  Gibbon,  or  Guizot, 
the  records  of  China,  and  of  India,  the  picture-writing  of  the 
Peruvians,  and  especially  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  which  were 
fondly  expected  to  do  such  good  service  against  the  Bible — must  be 
at  once  rejected,  without  further  examination,  as  mythological  and 
unworthy  of  any  credit  whatever.  Thus  we  are  conclusively  rid 
for  ever  of  the  Bible,  for  sure  enough  it  is  couched  in  symbolical 
language.  Blessed  deliverance  to  the  world !  But  then,  alas  !  this 
great  deliverance  is  accompanied  with  several  little  inconveniences. 
All  poetry,  three-fourths  of  the  Avorld’s  history,  and  the  largest  part 
of  its  philosophy,  is  couched  in  symbolical  language,  and  especially 
the  whole  of  the  science  of  metaphysics,  from  which  these  very 
learned  writers  have  deduced  such  edifying  conclusions,  is,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,  nothing  but  a  sjnnbolical  application  of 
the  terms  which  describe  material  objects,  to  the  phenomena  of 
mind.  Alas!  we  must  for  ever  relinquish  “  the  absolute/7  and  “  the 
infinite/7  and  “the  conditioned/7  with  all  their  “affinities  and 
potencies/7  up  to  “the  higher  unity/7  and  “the  rhythm  of  univer¬ 
sal  existence/7  and  all  the  rest  of*  those  perspicuous  German  hiero- 
60 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


5 


glyphic's,  whether  entombed  in  their  native  pyramids  for  the  amaze¬ 
ment  of  succeeding  generations,  by  Fichte,  Schelling,  or  Hegel,  or 
“worshipping  in  the  great  cathedral  of  the  immensities/7  “with 
their  heads  uplifted  into  infinite  space,’7  or  “  lying  on  the  plane  of 
their  own  consciousness,77  in  the  writings  of  Carlyle,  Emerson,  and 
Parker.  They  are  myths,  the  whole  of  them,  for  they  “  are  couched 
in  symbolical  language/7 — and  Bauer,  De  Wette,  and  Strauss  have 
pronounced  every  thing  couched  in  symbolical  language  to  be 
mythical.  Let  us  henceforth  deliver  our  minds  from  all  anxiety 
about  history,  philosophy,  or  religion,  and  stick  to  the  price  cur¬ 
rent  and  the  multiplication  table,  the  only  accounts  that  are  not 
“  couched  in  symbolical  language.77 

Such  is  the  sort  of  trash  which  passes  for  profound  philosophy 
when  once  it  is  made  unintelligible,  and  such  are  the  canons  of 
interpretation  with  which  men  calling  themselves  philosophers  and 
Christians  sit  down  to  investigate  the  claims  of  the  Bible  as  a 
revelation  from  God.  If  they  would  speak  out  their  true  sentiments, 
they  would  say,  “  There  cannot  be  any  revelation  from  God,  because 
there  is  no  God.77  But  they  could  not  call  themselves  professors  of 
Christian  colleges,  and  pastors  of  Congregational  churches,  and 
reap  the  emoluments  of  such  situations,  if  they  would  honestly 
avow  their  Atheism.  Besides  the  world  would  see  too  plainly  the 
drift  of  tlieir  teaching  ;  therefore  it  is  cloaked  under  a  profession 
of  belief  in  God,  the  Creator,  who  however  is  to  be  carefully 
prevented  from  ever  showing  himself  again  in  the  world  he  has 
made. 

No  proof  is  attempted  for  the  declaration  that  miracles  are 
impossible.  Yet,  surely,  if  it  implies  a  contradiction  to  say  so, 
that  contradiction  could  be  shown.  That  it  is  not  self-evident  is 
shown  by  the  general  belief  of  mankind  that  miracles  have  occurred. 
No  man  who  believes  in  a  supernatural  being,  can  deny  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  supernatural  actings.  The  creation  of  the  world  is  the 
most  stupendous  of  all  miracles,  utterly  beyond  the  power  of  any 
finite  causes,  and  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  our  experience,  yet 
these  men  admit  that  this  miracle  occurred.  Supernatural  events 
then  are  not  impossible,  nor  unprecedented. 

The  vain  notion  that  God,  having  created  the  world  at  first,  left 
it  for  ever  after  to  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  is  conclusively 
demolished  by  the  discoveries  of  geology.  These  discoveries  estab¬ 
lish  the  fact  recorded  in  Scripture,  that  in  bringing  the  world  into 

61 


6 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


its  present  form  there  were  several  distinct  and  successive  interpo¬ 
sitions  of  supernatural  power,  in  the  distinct  and  successive  crea¬ 
tions  of  different  species  of  vegetable  and  animal  life.  In  former 
periods  the  earth  was  so  warm  that  the  present  races  of  men  and 
animals  could  not  have  lived  on  it,  and  the  plants  and  animals  of 
that  age  could  not  live  now.  These  very  men  are  profuse  in  proving 
that  the  earth  existed  for  ages  before  man  made  his  appearance 
upon  it.  This  being  the  case,  we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  the 
creating  power  of  a  God  above  the  laws  of  nature,  for  there  is  no 
law  of  nature  which  can  either  create  a  new  species  of  plants  or 
animals — nor  yet  change  one  kind  into  another — make  an  oak  into 
a  larch,  or  an  ox  into  a  sheep,  or  a  goose  into  a  turkey,  or  a  mega¬ 
therium  into  an  elephant — much  less  into  a  man.  Some  men  have 
dreamed  of  such  changes  as  these,  but  no  instance  of  such  a  change 
has  ever  been  alleged  in  proof  of  the  notion.  The  most  distin¬ 
guished  anatomists  and  geologists  are  fully  agreed  that  no  such 
change  of  one  animal  into  another  ever  took  place  ;  much  less  that 
any  animal  ever  was  changed  into  a  man.  Lyell  says  at  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  four  chapters  devoted  to  an  investigation  of  the  subject: 
“  From  the  above  considerations  it  appears  that  species  have  a  real 
existence  in  nature,  and  that  each  was  endowed  at  the  time  of  its 
creation,  with  the  attributes  and  organization  by  which  it  is  now 
distinguished.”*  Cuvier,  from  his  comprehensive  survey  of  the 
fossils  of  former  periods,  establishes  the  fact,  “  that  the  species  now 
living  are  not  mere  varieties  of  the  species  which  are  lost.”  And 
Agassiz  says,  “  I  have  the  conviction  that  species  have  been  created 
successively,  at  distinct  intervals.”!  Revelations  of  God’s  special 
interpositions  in  the  affairs  of  this  world  are  thus  written  by  his 
own  f  nger  in  the  fossils  and  coal,  and  engraved  on  the  everlasting 
granite  of  the  earth’s  foundation  stones.  Dumb  beast3  and  dead 
reptiles  start  forward  to  give  their  irrefutable  testimony  to  the 
repeated  supernatural  acts  of  their  Creator  in  this  ivorld  which  he 
had  made.  Every  distinct  species  of  plants  and  animals  is  proof 
of  a  distinct  supernatural  overruling  of  the  present  laws  of  nature. 
The  experience  of  man  is  not  the  limit  of  knowledge.  His  own 
existence  is  a  proof  that  the  chain  of  finite  causes  is  not  inviolable. 
Geology  sweeps  away  the  very  foundations  of  scepticism,  by  demon- 


62 


*  Elements  of  Geology,  page  611,  9th  edition, 
f  See  Pearson  on  Infidelity,  page  93,  40th  edition. 


I 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE.  7 

strating  that  certain  phenomena  produced  immediately  by  God 
himself — the  phenomena  of  the  creation  of  life — have  occurred 
repeatedly  in  the  history  of  our  globe.  Revelation  is  not  impos¬ 
sible  because  supernatural.  The  world  is  just  as  full  of  superna¬ 
tural  works  as  of  natural.  Nor  is  it  incredible  because  it  records 
miracles.  The  miracles  recorded  in  the  coal  measures  are  as 
astonishing  as  any  recorded  in  the  Bible. 

The  Spiritualist  next  advances  to  assure  us,  that  any  external 
revelation  from  God  to  man  is  useless,  because  man  is  wise  enough 
without  it.  The  vulgar  exposition  of  this  sentiment  is  familiar  to 
every  reader.  “  You  need  not  begin  to  preach  Bible  to  me.  I 
know  my  duty  well  enough  without  the  Bible.”  The  more  educated 
attempt  to  reason  the  matter  after  this  fashion  :  “Miraculous  phe¬ 
nomena  will  never  prove  the  goodness  and  veracity  of  God,  if  we 
do  not  know  these  qualities  in  him  without  a  miracle.”*  We  may 
remark  in  passing,  that  there  are  some  other  attributes  of  God 
besides  goodness  and  veracity — holiness  and  justice  for  instance, 
which  are  proved  by  miracles.  “  Can  thunder  from  the  thirty-two 
azimuths,  repeated  daily  for  centuries,  make  God’s  laws  more  god¬ 
like  to  me  ?  Brother,  no.  Perhaps  I  am  grown  to  be  a  man  now, 
and  do  not  need  the  thunder  and  the  terror  any  longer.  Perhaps  I  am 
above  being  frightened.  Perhaps  it  is  not  fear  but  reverence  that 
shall  now  lead  me  !  Revelation  !  Inspirations  !  And  thy  own  god- 
created  soul,  dost  thou  not  call  that  a  revelation  ?”f  It  is  manifest 
however,  that  if  Mr.  Carlyle  needs  not  the  Sinai  thunder  to  assure 
him  that  the  law  given  on  Sinai  was  from  God,  there  were  then,  and 
are  now  many  who  do,  and  some  of  his  own  sect  who  doubt  in  spite 
of  it.  If  he  is  above  the  weakness  of  fearing  God,  all  the  world  is 
not  so. 

The  claims  of  a  divine  teacher  are  as  unceremoniously  rejected 
as  those  of  a  divine  revelation.  “  If  it  depends  on  Jesus  it  is  not 
eternally  true,  and  if  it  is  not  eternally  true  it  is  no  truth  at  all,” 
says  Parker.  As  if  eternally  true  and  sufficiently  known  were  just 
the  same  thing ;  or  as  if  because  vaccination  would  always  have 
prevented  the  small-pox,  the  world  is  under  no  obligation  to 
Jcnner  for  informing  us  of  the  fact.  In  the  same  strain  Emerson 
despises  instruction:  “It  is  not  instruction  but  provocation  that  I 
can  receive  from  another  soul.  What  he  announces,  I  must  find 


•  Newman’s  Phases  of  Faith,  157. 


f  Cnrlyle’s  Past  and  Present,  307. 

63 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


true  in  me,  or  wholly  reject;  and  on  his  word,  or  as  his  second,  be 
he  who  he  may,  I  can  accept  nothing.”  Again  says  Parker,  “  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  dependent  on  no  outside  authority.  We  verify  its 
eternal  truth  in  our  soul.”*  Ilis  aim  is  “  to  separate  religion  from 
whatever  is  finite — church,  book,  person — and  let  it  rest  on  its 
absolute  truth.”f  “  It  bows  to  no  idols,  neither  the  church,  nor  the 
Bible,  nor  yet  Jesus,  but  God  only  :  its  Redeemer  is  within :  its  sal¬ 
vation  within :  its  heaven  and  its  oracle  of  God.”J  The  whole  strain 
of  this  school  of  writers  and  their  disciples  is  one  of  depreciation 
of  external  revelation,  and  of  exaltation  of  the  inner  light  which 
every  man  is  supposed  to  carry  within  him.  Religion  is  “no 
Morison’s  pill  from  without,”  but  a  “  clearing  of  the  inner  light,” 
a  “ re-awakening  of  our  own  selves  from  within. So  Mr.  New¬ 
man  ||  abundantly  argues  that  an  authoritative  book  revelation  of 
moral  and  spiritual  truth  is  impossible — that  God  reveals  himself 
within  us  and  not  without  us — and  that  a  revelation  of  all  moral  and 
religious  truth  necessary  for  us  to  know  is  to  be  obtained  by  insight 
or  gazing  into  the  depths  of  our  own  consciousness.  The  sum  of  the 
whole  business  is,  that  neither  God  or  man  can  reveal  any  religious 
truth  to  our  minds,  or  as  Parker  felicitously  expresses  it,  “  on  his 
word,  or  as  his  second,  be  he  who  he  may,  I  can  accept  nothing.” 

Now,  we  are  tempted  to  ask,  who  are  these  wonderful  prodigies, 
so  incapable  of  receiving  instruction  from  any  body?  And  to  our 
amazement  we  learn,  that  some  forty  odd  years  ago  they  made 
their  appearance  among  mankind  as  little  squalling  babies,  with¬ 
out  insight  enough  to  know  their  own  names,  or  where  they  came 
from,  and  were  actually  dependent  on  an  external  revelation,  from 
their  nurses,  for  sense  enough  to  find  their  mothers’  breasts.  And 
as  they  grew  a  little  larger,  they  obtained  the  power  of  speaking 
articulate  sounds  by  external  revelation :  hearing  and  imitating 
the  sounds  made  by  others.  Further,  upon  a  memorable  day,  they 
had  a  “book  revelation”  made  to  them,  in  the  shape  of  a  penny 
primer,  and  were  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  A,  B,  C,  by  “  the 
instructions  of  another,  be  he  who  he  may.”  There  was  absolutely 
not  the  least  “insight,”  or  “spiritual  faculty,”  or  “self-conscious¬ 
ness,”  in  one  of  them,  by  which  they  then  could,  or  ever  to  this 
hour  did  “  find  true  within  them”  any  sort  of  necessary  connection 


*  Discourse  on  Religion,  page  209.  J  lb.  page  37.  K  lb.  page  359. 

f  Carlyle’s  Past  and  Present,  312,  g  The  Soul  Passive,  page  342. 

64 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


9 


between  the  signs,  c,  a,  t,  —  d,  o,  g,  —  and  the  sounds  cat,  dog , 
or  any  other  sounds  represented  by  any  other  letters  of  the 
alphabet.  Faith  in  the  word  of  their  teachers  is  absolutely  the 
sole  foundation  and  only  source  of  their  ability  to  read  and 
write.  On  “the  word  of  another,  and  as  his  second,  be  he  who  he 
may,”  every  one  of  them  has  accepted  every  intelligible  word  ho 
speaks  or  writes. 

And  this  is  not  half  of  their  indebtedness  to  external  revelation. 
For  they  will  not  deny  that  a  Feejee  cannibal  has  just  the  same 
“  insight,”  “  spiritual  faculty,”  “  mighty  and  transcendent  soul,” 
“  self-consciousness,”  or  any  other  name  by  which  they  may  dignify 
our  common  humanity,  which  they  themselves  possess.  IIovv  does 
it  happen,  then,  that  these  writers,  and  all  the  rest  of  our  Spirit¬ 
ualists,  are  not  assembled  around  the  cannibal’s  oven,  smearing 
their  faces  with  the  blood,  and  feasting  themselves  on  the  limbs  of 
women  and  children?  The  inner  nature  of  the  cannibal  and  the 
spiritualist  is  the  same:  whence  comes  the  difference  of  character 
and  conduct?  And  the  inner  light,  too,  is  the  same;  for  they 
assure  us  that  “  inspiration,  like  God’s  omnipresence,  is  coextensive 
with  the  race.”  Is  it  not,  after  all,  mere  external  revelation,  in  the 
shape  of  education — aye,  and  moral  and  religious  teaching— that 
makes  the  whole  difference  between  the  civilized  American  and  his 
inspired  Feejee  brother  ? 

These  gentlemen  not  only  acknowledge,  but  try  to  repay  their 
obligations  to  external  revelation.  As  it  is  impossible  for  God  to 
give  the  world  a  book  revelation  of  moral  and  religious  truth,  they 
modestly  propose  to  come  to  his  assistance,  it  being  quite  possible 
for  some  men  to  do  what  it  is  impossible  for  God.  Accordingly, 
we  have  a  book  revelation  of  moral  and  religious  truth,  from  one, 
in  his  treatise  on  The  Soul,  an  “  external  revelation”  from  another, 
in  his  Discourse  concerning  religion,  a  “  Morison’s  pill  from  the 
outside,”  from  a  third,  in  his  Past  and  Present,  and  “announce¬ 
ments”  from  a  fourth,  which  assuredly  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
never  “  found  true  within  them,”  else  his  orations  and  publications 
had  not  been  needed  to  convert  them.  It  is  to  be  understood,  then, 
that  an  “  external  revelation,”  or  a  “  book  revelation  ”  of  spiritual 
truth  is  impossible,  only  when  it  comes  from  God,  but  that 
these  gentlemen  have  proved  it  quite  possible  for  themselves  to 
deliver  one. 

In  so  doing  they  have  undoubtedly  attempted  to  meet  the  wishes 
6  65 


10 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


of  the  greater  part  of  mankind,  who  have  in  all  lands  and  in  all 
ages  longed  for  some  outward  revelation  .from  God,  and  testified 
their  desire  by  running  after  all  sorts  of  omens,  auguries,  and 
oracles,  consulting  witches,  and  treasuring  Sibylline  leaves,  employ¬ 
ing  writing  mediums,  and  listening  to  spirit  rappers.  The  “  inspi¬ 
ration  which  is  limited  to  no  sect,  age,  or  nation — which  is  wide  as 
the  world,  and  common  as  God/7*  has  never  produced  a  nation  of 
Spiritualists :  a  fact  very  unaccountable,  if  Spiritualism  be  true, 
and  one  which  might  well  lead  these  writers  to  acknowledge  at 
least  one  kind  of  total  depravity,  namely,  that  inspired  men  should 
love  the  darkness  of  external  revelations,  and  even  of  book  revela¬ 
tions,  and  read  Bibles,  and  Korans,  and  Vedas,  and  “Discourses 
concerning  religion/7  and  “Phases  of  Faith/7  while  yet  “every 
thing  that  is  of  use  to  man,  lies  in  the  plane  of  our  own  conscious¬ 
ness.77!  Surely,  such  a  universal  craving  after  an  external  revela¬ 
tion  testifies  to  a  felt  necessity  for  it,  and  renders  it  probable, 
or  at  least  desirable,  that  God  would  supply  the  deficiency.  Is 
the  religious  appetite  the  only  one  for  which  God  has  provided 
no  .supply  ? 

But  we  are  instructed,  that,  “  as  we  have  bodily  senses  to  lay 
hold  on  matter,  and  supply  bodily  wants,  through  which  wo 
obtain  naturally  all  needed  material  things,  so  we  have  spiritual 
faculties  to  lay  hold  on  God,  and  supply  spiritual  wants :  through 
them  we  obtain  all  needed  spiritual  things.77  That  we  have  both 
bodily  senses  and  spiritual  faculties,  is  doubtless  true ;  but  whether 
either  the  one  or  the  other  obtain  all  needed  things,  is  somewhat 
doubtful.  I  cannot  tell  how  it  is  with  mankind  in  Boston,  for  I 
am  not  there;  and  this  being  a  matter  in  which  religious  truth  is 
concerned,  Mr.  Emerson  will  not  allow  me  to  receive  instruction 
about  it  from  any  other  soul ;  but  I  see  from  my  window  a  poor 
widow,  with  five  children,  who  has  bodily  senses  to  lay  hold  on 
matter,  and  supply  bodily  wants ;  yet  in  my  opinion  she  has  not 
obtained  naturally  all  needed  material  things ;  and  if  there  be  a 
truth  which  lies  emphatically  in  the  plane  of  her  own  conscious¬ 
ness,  it  is,  that  she  is  in  great  need  of  a  cord  of  wood,  and  a 
barrel  of  flour,  for  her  starving  children.  I  know,  also,  a  man, 
to  whom  God  gave  bodily  senses  to  lay  hold  on  matter,  and  supply 
bodily  wants,  who,  by  his  drunkenness,  has  destroyed  these  bodily 


*  Parker’s  Discourse,  171. 

66 


t  Ibid,  33. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


11 


senses,  and  brought  his  family  to  utter  destitution  of  all  needed 
material  things.  From  one  cause  or  another,  I  find  multitudes 
here  in  poverty  and  destitution,  notwithstanding  they  have  bodily 
senses.  It  is  reported,  also,  that  there  is  a  poor  house  in  Boston, 
and  poverty  in  Ireland,  and  starvation  in  Madeira,  and  famine  in 
the  inundated  provinces  of  France,  and  misery  and  destitution 
in  London ;  which,  if  true,  completely  overturns  this  beautiful 
theory.  For,  if,  notwithstanding  the  possession  of  bodily  senses, 
men  do  sta-i^ve  in  this  world  for  want  of  needful  food  and  clothing, 
it  is  very  possible  that  they  may  have  spiritual  faculties  also,  and 
yet  not  obtain  through  them  all  needed  spiritual  things.  The 
second  part  of  the  theory  is  as  baseless  as  the  first.  All  men 
have  spiritual  faculties,  and  have  not  by  them  obtained  all  needed 
spiritual  things.  They  have  not  in  their  own  opinion,  and  surely 
they  are  competent  judges  of  “what  lies  wholly  in  the  plane  of 
their  own  consciousness.” 

In  proof  of  the  fact  that  mankind  have  not,  in  their  own  opinion, 
obtained  all  needed  spiritual  things  by  the  use  of  their  spiritual 
faculties,  without  the  aid  of  external  revelation,  we  appeal  to  all 
the  religions  of  mankind,  Heathen,  Mahomedan,  and  Christian. 
Every  one  of  these  appeals  to  revelations  from  God.  Every  law¬ 
giver  of  note  professed  to  have  communication  with  heaven,  Zoro¬ 
aster,  Minos,  Pythagoras,  Solon,  Lycurgus,  Numa,  Mahomed, 
down  to  the  chief  of  the  present  revolution  in  China.  “Whatever 
becomes  of  the  real  truth  of  these  relations,”  says  Strabo  of  those 
before  his  day,  “  it  is  certain  that  men  did  believe  and  think  them 
true”  If  mankind  had  found  the  supply  of  all  their  spiritual 
wants  within  themselves,  would  they  have  clung  in  this  way  to  the 
pretence  of  external  revelations?  Is  not  the  abundance  of  quack 
doctors  conclusive  proof  of  the  existence  of  disease  and  the  need  of 
physicians  ? 

Not  only  was  the  need  of  an  external  revelation  of  some  sort 
acknowledged  by  all  mankind,  but  the  insufficiency  of  the  pre¬ 
tended  oracles  which  they  enjoyed  was  deplored  by  the  wisest 
part  of  them.  We  never  find  men  amidst  the  dim  moonlight  of 
tradition  and  the  light  of  nature,  vaunting  the  sufficiency  of  their 
inward  light;  it  is  only  amidst  the  full  blaze  of  noon-day  Christianity, 
that  philosophers  can  stand  up  and  declare  that  they  have  no  need 
of  God’s  teaching.  Had  such  men  lived  in  Athens  of  old,  they 
would  have  found  men  possessed  of  spiritual  faculties,  and  those  of 

67 


12 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


no  mean  order,  engaged  in  erecting  an  altar  with  this  inscription, 
“  To  the  Unknown  God.”  One  of  the  wisest  of  the  heathen  (Socrates) 
acknowledged  that  he  could  attain  to  no  certainty  respecting  re¬ 
ligious  truth  or  moral  duty,  in  these  memorable  words,  “  We  must 
of  necessity  wait,  till  some  one  from  Him  who  careth  for  us,  shall 
come  and  instruct  us  how  we  ought  to  behave  towards  God  and 
toward  man,”  The  chief  of  the  Academy,  whose  philosophy  concern¬ 
ing  the  eternity  of  matter  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  creed 
of  American  heathens,  had  no  such  confidence  in  the  sufficiency  of 
liis  own  powers  of  discovering  religious  truth.  “We  cannot  know 
of  ourselves  what  petition  will  be  pleasing  to  God,  or  what  worship 
we  should  pay  to  him  ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  a  lawgiver  should 
be  sent  from  heaven  to  instruct  us.”  “  Oh  how  greatly  do  I  long 
to  see  that  man  !”  lie  further  declares  that  “  this  lawgiver  must  he 
more  than  man,  that  he  mag  teach  us  the  things  man  can  not  know 
by  his  own  nature.”*  Whether  this  want  of  a  revelation  from  God, 
was  real  or  merely  imaginary,  will  appear  by  a  brief  review  of  tho 
opinions  and  practices  of  those  who  never  enjoyed,  and  of  those 
who  reject  the  light  of  God’s  revelation. 

They  knew  not  God.  If  there  is  any  article  of  religion  funda¬ 
mental  and  indispensable  to  its  very  existence,  it  is  the  knowledge 
of  God.  It  is  admitted  by  Spiritualists  that  the  spiritual  faculties 
are  designed  to  lay  hold  on  God.  It  has  been  proved  in  the  two 
former  tracts  of  this  series,  and  will  be  admitted  by  all  but  Atheists, 
that  God  is  an  intelligent  being.  And  further  it  has  been  proved 
that  God  is  not  every  thing  and  every  body,  but  distinct  from  and 
supreme  over  all  his  works.  Besides,  in  this  country  at  least,  there 
will  not  be  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  propriety  of  a 
rational  being  adoring  a  brute,  or  a  log  of  wood,  or  a  lump  of  stone. 
It  will  be  allowed  that  such  stupidity  shows  both  ignorance  and 
folly.  Now  let  us  enquire  into  the  knowledge  of  God  possessed  by 
the  people  who  have  no  vision. 

The  Chaldeans,  the  most  ancient  people  of  whom  we  have  any 
account,  and  who  had  among  them  the  immediate  descendants  of 
Noah,  and  whatever  traditions  of  Noah’s  prophecies  they  preserved, 
were  probably  the  best  instructed  of  the  heathen.  Yet  we  find 
that  they  gave  up  the  worship  of  God,  adored  the  sun,,  and  moon, 
and  stars  of  heaven,  and  in  process  of  time  degenerated  still  fur- 


68 


*  Plato.  Republic.  Books  IT  and  YL,  and  Alcibiados  II. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


13 


tlier,  and  worshiped  dumb  idols.  From  this  rock  we  were  hewn; 
the  common  names  of  the  da}rs  of  the  week,  and  especially  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  will  for  ever  keep  up  a  testimony  to  the 
necessity  of  that  revelation  which  delivered  our  forefathers  and 
us  from  burning  our  children  upon  the  devil's  altars  on  Sun-days. 

The  Egyptians  were  reputed  the  most  learned  of  mankind,  and 
Egypt  was  considered  the  cradle  of  the  arts  and  sciences.  In  her  ex¬ 
isting  monuments,  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  and  tomb  paintings,  we 
have  presented  to  us  the  materials  for  forming  a  more  correct  opinion 
of  the  religion  and  life  of  the  Egyptians,  than  of  any  other  ancient 
people  ;  and  the  investigation  of  these  monuments  is  still  adding 
to  our  information.  Infidel  writers  and  lecturers  have  not  hesitated 
to  allege  that  Moses  merely  taught  the  Israelites  the  religion  of 
Egypt ;  and  some  have  had  the  hardihood  to  allege  that  the  ten 
commandments  are  found  written  on  the  pyramids,  as  an  argument 
against  the  necessity  of  a  revelation.  If  the  statement  were  true, 
it  would  by  no  means  prove  the  conclusion.  Egyp>t  was  favored 
with  divine  revelations  to  several  of  her  kings,  and  enjoyed  occa¬ 
sional  visits  from,  or  the  permanent  teachings  of  such  prophets  as 
Abraham,  Jacob,  Joseph,  and  Moses,  for  four  hundred  years — a 
fact  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  her  superiority  to  other  heathen 
nations,  as  well  as  for  the  existence  of  some  traces  Of  true  religion 
on  her  monuments.  But  the  alleged  fact  is  a  falsehood.  Some 
good  moral  precepts  are  found  on  the  Egyptian  monuments,  but 
the  ten  commandments  are  not  there.  It  may  be  charitably  sup¬ 
posed  that  those  who  allege  the  contrary  never  learned  the  ten 
commandments,  or  have  forgotten  them,  else  they  would  have 
remembered  that  the  first  commandment  is,  “  Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me  and  that  the  second  is,  “  Thou  shalt  not 
make  unto  thee  any  graven  image,"  etc.,  and  would  have  paused 
before  alleging  that  these  commands  were  engraved  upon  the  very 
temples  of  idols,  and  by  the  priests  of  the  birds  and  beasts  and 
creeping  things  which  they  adored.  It  is  very  doubtful  if  they 
believed  in  the  existence  of  one  supreme  God,  as  most  of  the 
heathen  did  ;  but  if  they  did,  “they  did  not  under  any  form,  sym¬ 
bol,  or  hieroglyphic,  represent  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  God,"  as  is 
fully  proved  by  Wilkinson.*  On  the  contrary,  the  monuments  con¬ 
firm  the  satirical  sketch  of  the  poet,f  as  to  the  “monsters  mad  Egypt 

*  Manners  and  Customs  of  Ancient  Egyptians,  2d  series,  vol.  ii.,  page  176,  et  passim. 

t  Juvenal,  Satire  XV. 


G9 


14 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


worshiped :  here  a  sea-fish,  there  a  river-fish ;  whole  towns  adore 
a  dog.  This  place  fears  an  ibis  saturated  with  serpents ;  that  adores 
a  crocodile.  It  is  a  sin  to  violate  a  leek  or  onion,  or  break  them 
with  a  bite.”  Cruel  wars  were  waged  between  different  towns,  as 
Plutarch  tells  us,  because  the  people  of  Cynopolis  would  eat  a 
fish  held  sacred  by  the  citizens  of  Latopolis.  Bulls,  and  dogs,  and 
cats,  and  rats,  and  reptiles,  and  dung  beetles,  were  devoutly 
adored  by  the  learned  Egyptians.  A  Boman  soldier,  wTho  had  acci¬ 
dentally  killed  one  of  their  gods,  a  cat,  was  put  to  death  for  sacri¬ 
lege.*  Whenever  a  dog  died,  every  person  in  the  house  went 
into  mourning,  and  fasted  till  night.  So  low  had  the  “  great,  the 
mighty  and  transcendent  soul,”  been  degraded,  that  there  is  a 
picture  extant  of  one  of  the  kings  of  Egypt  worshiping  his  own 
coffin  !  Such  is  man’s  knowdedge  of  God  without  a  revelation  from 
Ilim. 

The  Greeks,  from  their  early  intercourse  with  Egypt,  borrowed 
from  them  most  of  their  religion;  but  by  later  connections  wdth 
the  Hebrews  about  the  time  of  Aristotle  and  Alexander,  they 
gathered  a  few  grains  of  truth  to  throw  into  the  heap  of  error. 
After  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  Greek,  in  the  reign  of 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  any  of  their  philosophers  who  desired,  might 
easily  have  learned  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God.  But  before  this 
period  we  find  little  or  no  sense  or  truth  in  their  religion.  And 
the  same  remarks  will  apply  to  the  Romans.  Their  gods  were  as 
detestable  as  they  were  numerous.  Hesiod  tells  us  they  had  thirty 
thousand.  Temples  were  erected  to  all  the  passions,  fears,  dis¬ 
eases,  to  which  humanity  is  subject.  Their  supreme  god  Jupiter 
was  an  adulterer,  Mars  a  murderer,  Mercury  a  thief,  Bacchus  a 
drunkard,  Venus  a  harlot,  and  they  attributed  other  crimes  to  their 
gods  too  horrible  to  be  mentioned.  Such  gods  were  worshiped 
wfith  appropriate  ceremonies,  of  lust,  drunkenness,  and  bloodshed. 
Their  most  sacred  mysteries,  carried  on  under  the  patronage  of 
these  licentious  deities,  wrere  so  abominable  and  infamous,  that  it 
was  found  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  any  remnant  of  good 
order,  to  prohibit  them. 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  human  race  is  grown  wiser  now 
than  in  the  days  of  Socrates  and  Cicero,  and  that  such  abomina¬ 
tions  are  no  longer  possible.  Turn  your  eyes,  then,  to  India,  and 
behold  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  rational  beings,  possessed 


70 


*  Diodorus  Siculus,  Book  1. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE.  15 

of  “spiritual  faculties,”  “insight,”  and  “the  religious  sentiment,” 
■worshipping  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  gods,  in  the 
forms  of  hills  and  trees,  and  rivers,  and  rocks,  elephants,  tigers, 
monkeys  and  rats,  crocodiles,  serpents,  beetles  and  ants,  and 
monsters  like  to  nothing  in  heaven  or  earth,  or  under  the  earth. 
Take  one  specimen  of  all.  There  is  “  the  lord  of  the  world,” 
Juggernath,  “When  you  think  of  the  monster  block  of  the  idol, 
with  its  frightfully  grim  and  distorted  visage,  so  justly  styled  the 
Moloch  of  the  East,  sitting  enthroned  amid  thousands  of  massive 
sculptures,  the  representative  emblems  of  that  cruelty  and  vice 
which  constitute  the  very  essence  of  his  worship  ;  when  you  think 
of  the  countless  multitudes  that  annually  congregate  there,  from 
all  parts  of  India,  many  of  them  measuring  the  whole  distance  of 
their  weary  pilgrimage  with  their  own  bodies ;  when  you  think  of 
the  merit-earning  assiduities  constantly  practised  by  crowds  of 
devotees  and  religious  mendicants,  around  the  holy  city :  some 
remaining  all  day  with  their  head  on  the  ground,  and  their  feet  in 
the  air ;  others  with  their  bodies  entirely  covered  with  earth  ;  some 
cramming  their  eyes  with  mud,  and  their  mouths  with  straw, 
while  others  lie  extended  in  a  puddle  of  water ;  here  one  man  lying 
with  his  foot  tied  to  his  neck,  another  with  a  pot  of  fire  on  his 
breast,  a  third  enveloped  in  a  network  of  ropes ; — when,  besides 
these  self-inflicted  torments,  you  think  of  the  frightful  amount  of 
involuntary  suffering  and  wretchedness  arising  from  the  exhaustion 
of  toilsome  pilgrimages,  the  cravings  of  famine,  and  the  scourgings 
of  pestilence  ; — when  you  think  of  the  day  of  the  high  festival — 
how  the  horrid  king  is  dragged  forth  from  his  temple,  and  mounted 
on  his  lofty  car,  in  the  presence  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  that 
cause  the  very  earth  to  shake  with  shouts  of  ‘Victory  to  Jugger¬ 
nath,  our  Lord — how  the  officiating  high  priest,  stationed  in  front 
of  the  elevated  idol,  commences  the  public  service  by  a  loathsome 
pantomimic  exhibition,  accompanied  with  the  utterance  of  filthy, 
blasphemous  songs,  to  which  the  vast  multitude  at  intervals  re¬ 
spond,  not  in  the  strains  of  tuneful  melody,  but  in  loud  yells  of 
approbation,  united  with  a  kind  of  hissing  applause ; — when  you 
think  of  the  carnage  that  ensues,  in  the  name  of  sacred  offering — 
how,  as  the  ponderous  machine  rolls  on,  grating  harsh  thunder, 
one  and  another  of  the  more  enthusiastic  devotees  throw  themselves 
beneath  the  wheels,  and  are  instantly  crushed  to  pieces,  the  infatu- 

71 


16' 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


ated  victims  of  hellish  superstition ; — vrhen  you  think  of  the 
numerous  Golgothas  that  bestud  the  neighboring  plain,  where  the 
dogs,  jackals  and  vultures  seem  to  live  on  human  prey;  and  of  those 
bleak  and  barren  sands  that  are  for  ever  whitened  with  the  skulls 
and  bones  of  deluded  pilgrims  which  lie  bleaching  in  the  sun,”* — • 
you  will  be  able  to  see  an  awful  force  of  meaning  in  the  words  of 
our  text,  and  to  realize  more  fully  the  necessity  of  a  revelation 
from  God,  for  the  very  preservation  of  animal  life  to  man.  Lite¬ 
rally,  where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish.  Man  doth  not 
live  by  bread  only,  but  by  every  word  which  proceedeth  from  the 
mouth  of  God. 

Take  one  other  illustration  of  ignorance  of  God  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  close  their  eyes  against  the  light  of  revelation — the 
heathen  of  Europe  and  America,  possessing  that  inspiration  which 
is  wide  as  the  world,  looking  abroad  upon  all  the  glorious  works 
of  the  great  Creator,  and  declaring  there  is  no  God.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  men,  possessed  of  this  same  inspiration,  deifying 
every  thing,  and  outrunning  even  the  Hindoos  in  the  multitude  of 
their  divinities,  declaring  that  every  stick,  and  stone,  and  serpent, 
and  snail  that  crawls  on  the  earth  is  God,  and  making  professions 
of  holding  spiritual  communings  with  them  all.  To  crown  the 
monument  of  folly,  the  chief  of  the  Positive  Philosophy  comes  forth 
with  a  revelation  from  his  spiritual  faculties,  in  which  by  way  of 
improving  on  the  proverb  both  are  best,”  and  of  being  sure  of  the 
truth,  he  unites  Atheism,  and  Pantheism,  and  Idolatry — teaches  his 
child  to  worship  idols,  the  youth  to  believe  in  one  God,  and  himself 
and  other  full-grown  men  to  adore  the  “resultant  of  all  the  forces 
capable  of  voluntarily  contributing  to  the  perfectioning  of  the 
universe,  not  forgetting  his  worthy  friends,  the  animals .”  To  such 
darkness  are  men  justly  condemned  who  shut  their  eyes  against 
the  light  of  God’s  revelation.  Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people 
perish  intellectuall3r.  He  who  turns  away  his  cars  from  the  truth, 
must  be  turned  unto  fables.  “  Hear  ye  and  give  ear,  be  not  proud, 
for  the  Lord  hath  spoken.  Give  glory  to  the  Lord  your  God  before 
he  cause  darkness,  and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the  dark 
mountains,  and  while  ye  look  for  light,  he  turn  it  into  the  shadow 
of  death,  and  make  it  gross  darkness.” 


72 


*  Duffs  India,  p.  222. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


17 


Without  a  revelation  from  God,  the  mind  of  man  can  attain  to 
no  certain  ty  regarding  the  most  important  of  all  his  interests,  the 
destiny  of  his  immortal  soul.  He  knows  -well — for  every  sickness, 
and  sorrow,  and  calamity  declares  it,  and  quick  returning  troubles 
will  not  allow  him  to  forget — that  the  Ruler  of  the  world  is 
offended  with  him ;  and  conscience  tells  him  why.  The  sense  of 
guilt  is  common  to  the  human  race.  This  is,  indeed,  “  the  inspira¬ 
tion  which  knows  no  sect,  no  country,  no  religion,  no  age;  which  is 
as  wide  as  humanity.”  Reason  asks  herself,  Will  God  be  always 
thus  angry  with  me  ?  Shall  I  ever  feel  these  pangs  of  remorse  for 
my  sins?  Will  misery  follow  me  for  ever,  as  I  see  and  feel  that  it 
does  here?  Or  shall  my  soul  exist  under  God’s  frowns,  or  perish 
under  his  just  sentence,  even  as  my  body  perishes?  Does  the 
grave  hide  for  ever  all  that  I  loved?  Have  they  ceased  to  be? 
Shall  we  ever  meet  again?  Or  must  I  say,  “Farewell,  farewell! 
An  eternal  farewell !”  And  in  a  few  days  myself  also  cease  to  be  ? 
The  only  answer  reason  gives,  is — solemn  silence. 

The  wisest  of  men  could  not  tell.  Who  has  not  dropped  a  tear 
over  the  dying  words  of  Socrates,  “I  am  going  out  of  the  world, 
and  you  are  to  continue  in  it,  but  which  of  us  has  the  better  part 
is  a  secret  to  every  one  but  God.”  Cicero  contended  for  the  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  soul  against  the  multitudes  of  philosophers  who 
denied  it  in  his  day ;  yet,  after  recounting  their  various  opinions, 
ho  is  obliged  to  say,  “Which  of  these  is  true,  God  alone  knows; 
and  which  is  most  probable,  a  very  great  question.”*  And  Seneca, 
on  a  review  of  this  subject,  says:  “Immortality,  however  desir¬ 
able,  was  rather  promised  than  proved  by  these  great  men.”  t 

The  multitude  had  but  two  ideas  on  the  subject.  Either  their 
ghosts  should  wander  eternally  in  the  land  of  shadows,  or  else  they 
would  pass  into  a  succession  of  other  bodies,  of  animals  or  men. 
From  the  nakedness  and  desolation  of  unclothed  spirit,  and  the 
possibility  which  this  notion  held  out  of  some  close  contact 
with  a  holy  and  just  judge,  the  soul  shrank  back  to  the  hope  of 
the  metempsychosis,  and  hoped  rather  to  dwell  in  the  body  of  a 
brute,  than  be  utterly  unclothed  and  mingle  with  spirits.  This  is 
the  delusion  cherished  by  the  people  of  India  and  many  other 
lands  to  this  day.  How  unsatisfactory  to  the  dying  sinner  this 


*  Tusc.  Qwest,  lib.  1. 


f  Seneca,  Ep.  102. 

73 


18 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


uncertainty.  “  Tell  me,”  said  a  wealthy  Hindoo,  who  had  given  all 
his  wealth  to  the  Brahmins  who  surrounded  his  dying  bed,  that 
they  might  obtain  pardon  for  his  sins,  “  Tell  me  what  will  become 
of  my  soul  when  I  die  ?”  “  Your  soul  will  go  into  the  body  of  a 

holy  cow.”  “And  after  that  ?”  “  It  will  pass  into  the  body  of  the 

divine  peacock.”  “And  after  that  ?”  “It  will  pass  into  a  flower.” 
“  Tell  me,  oh !  tell  me,”  cried  the  dying  man,  “  where  will  it  go 
last  of  all  ?”  Where  will  it  go  last  of  all  ?  Aye,  that  is  the  ques¬ 
tion  reason  can  not  answer. 

The  rejectors  of  the  Bible  here,  are  as  uncertain  on  this  all-im¬ 
portant  subject,  as  the  heathen  of  India.  They  have  every  variety 
of  oracles,  and  conjectures,  and  suppositions  about  the  other  world  ; 
but  for  their  guesses  they  offer  no  proof.  When  they  give  us  their 
oracles  as  if  they  were  known  truths,  we  are  compelled  to  ask, 
IIow  do  you  know  ?  The  only  thing  in  which  they  are  agreed  among 
themselves,  is  in  denying  the  resurrection  of  the  body — a  point 
which  they  gathered  from  their  heathen  classics.  A  poor,  empty, 
naked,  shivering,  table-rapping  spirit,  obliged  to  fly  over  the  world 
at  the  sigh  of  any  silly  sewing  girl,  or  the  bidding  of  some  brazen¬ 
faced  strumpet,  is  all  that  ever  shall  exist  of  Washington  or  New¬ 
ton,  in  the  scheme  of  one  class  of  Bible  rejectors.  To  obtain  rest 
from  such  a  doom,  others  fly  to  the  eternal  tomb,  and  inform  us 
that  the  soul  is  simply  an  acting  of  the  brain,  and  when  the  brain 
ceases  to  act,  the  soul  ceases  also.  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die.  But  even  this  hog  philosophy  is  reasonable, 
compared  with  the  dogma  of  the  large  majority^  that  a  man  may 
blaspheme,  swear,  lie,  steal,  murder,  and  commit  adultery,  and  go 
straight  to  heaven — that  “  many  a  swarthy  Indian  who  bowed  down 
to  wood  and  stone  —  many  a  grim-faced  Calmuck  who  worshiped 
the  great  god  of  storms — many  a  Grecian  peasant  who  did  homage 
to  Phoebus  Apollo  when  the  sun  rose  or  went  down  —  many  a 
savage,  his  hands  smeared  all  over  with  human  sacrifice — shall 
sit  down  with  Moses  and  Jesus  in  the  kingdom  of  God.”*  To  such 
wild  unreason  dqes  the  mind  of  man  descend  when  it  rejects  the 
Bible. 

Life  and  immortality  are  brought  to  light  by  the  Gospel.  Where 
there  is  no  vision,  hope  perishes.  The  only  plausible  creed  for  him 


74 


*  Parker’s  Discourse,  S3. 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE.  19 

who  rejects  it,  is  the  eternal  tomb,  and  the  heart-chilling  inscrip¬ 

tion  :  “  Death  is  an  eternal  sleep  !” 

Without  a  revelation  from  God ,  men  are  as  ignorant  how  to  live , 
as  hoio  to  die.  They  have  no  rule  of  life  having  either  truth  or 
authority  to  direct  them.  Our  Anglo  Saxon  ancestors,  of  the  purity 
of  whose  blood  we  are  so  proud,  trusted  to  their  magical  incanta¬ 
tions  for  the  cure  of  diseases,  for  the  success  of  their  tillage,  for 
the  discovery  of  lost  property,  for  uncharming  cattle  and  the  pre¬ 
vention  of  casualties.  One  day  was  useful  for  all  things  ;  another, 

though  good  to  tame  animals,  was  baleful  to  sow  seed.  One  day 

was  favorable  to  the  commencement  of  business,  another  to  let 
blood,  and  others  wore  a  forbidding  aspect  to  these  and  other 
things.  On  this  day  they  were  to  buy,  on  a  second  to  sell,  on  a 
third  to  hunt,  on  a  fourth  to  do  nothing.  If  a  child  was  born  on 
such  a  day,  it  would  live ;  if  on  another,  its  life  would  be  sickly ;  if 
on  another,  it  would  perish  early.*  Their  descendants  who  reject 
the  Bible  are  fully  as  superstitious.  Astrologers,  and  Mediums, 
and  Clairvoyants,  in  multitudes,  find  a  profitable  trade  among  them ; 
and  one  prominent  anti-Bible  lecturer  will  cure  you  of  any  disease 
you  have,  if  you  will  only  enclose,  in  a  letter,  a  lock  of  hair  from 
the  right  temple,  and — a — Five  Dollar  Bill. 

The  precepts  of  even  the  wisest  men,  and  the  laws  of  the  best 
regulated  states,  commanded  or  approved  of  vice.  In  Babylon 
prostitution  was  compulsory  on  every  female.  The  Carthaginian 
law  required  human  sacrifices.  When  Agathoclas  besieged  Car¬ 
thage,  two  hundred  children,  of  the  most  noble  families,  were  mur¬ 
dered  by  the  command  of  the  senate,  and  three  hundred  citizens 
voluntarily  sacrificed  themselves  to  Saturn.f  The  laws  of  Sparta 
required  theft,  and  the  murder  of  unhealthy  children.  Those  of 
ancient  Rome  allowed  parents  the  power  of  killing  their  children, 
if  they  pleased.  At  Athens,  the  capital  of  heathen  literature  and 
philosophy,  it  was  enacted  “that  infants  which  appeared  to  be 
maimed  should  be  either  killed  or  exposed.”;}; 

Plato,  dissatisfied  with  the  constitution,  made  a  scheme  of  one 
much  better,  which  he  has  left  us  in  his  Republic.  In  this  great 
advance  of  society,  this  heathen  millennium,  we  find  that  there  was 


*  Turner’s  Anglo  Saxons,  b.  vii,  chap.  13.  t  Aristotle,  Tolit.  lib.  vii,  chap.  17. 
f  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  xx,  chap.  14. 

75 


20 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE.' 


to  be  a  community  of  women  and  of  property,  just  as  among  our 
modern  heathens.  Women’s  rights  were  to  be  maintained  by 
having  the  women  trained  to  war.  Children  were  still  to  be  mur¬ 
dered,  if  convenience  called  for  it.  And  the  young  children  were 
to  be  led  to  battle  at  a  safe  distance,  “  that  the  young  whelps  might 
early  scent  carnage,  and  be  inured  to  slaughter.” 

The  teachings  of  all  these  philosophers  were  immoral.  He  may 
lie,  says  Plato,  who  knows  how  to  do  it.  Pride  and  the  love  of 
popular  applause  were  esteemed  the  best  motives  to  virtue.  Pro¬ 
fane  swearing  was  commanded  by  the  example  of  all  their  best 
writers  and  moralists.  Oaths  are  frequent  in  the  writings  of 
Plato  and  Seneca.  The  gratification  of  the  sensual  appetites  was 
openly  taught.  Anstippus  taught  that  a  wise  man  might  steal  and 
commit  adulter}q  when  he  could.  Unnatural  crimes  were  vindi¬ 
cated.  The  last  dread  crime — suicide — was  pleaded  for  by  Cicero 
and  Seneca  as  the  mark  of  a  hero,  and  Demosthenes,  Cato,  Brutus, 
and  Cassius,  carried  the  means  of  self-destruction  about  them,  that 
they  might  not  fall  alive  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies. 

The  lives  of  these  wisest  of  the  heathen  corresponded  to  their 
teachings,  so  far  at  least  as  vice  was  concerned.  The  most  noto¬ 
rious  vices,  and  even  unnatural  crimes,  were  practiced  by  them. 
The  reader  of  the  classics  does  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  such 
vices  are  lauded  in  the  poems  of  Ovid,  and  Horace,  and  Virgil ; 
that  the  poets  were  rewarded  and  honored  for  songs  which  would 
not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment  in  the  vilest  theater  of  New  York. 
What,  then,  must  the  lives  of  the  vulgar  have  been  ?  In  the  very 
height  of  Homan  civilization,  Trajan  caused  ten  thousand  men  to 
hew  each  other  to  pieces  for  the  amusement  of  the  Homan  people; 
and  noble  ladies  feasted  their  eyes  on  the  spectacle.  In  the  Augus¬ 
tan  age,  when  the  invincible  armies  of  Home  gave  law  to  half  the 
world,  fathers  were  in  the  habit  of  mutilating  their  sons  rather 
than  see  them  subjected  to  the  slavery  and  terrible  despotism  of 
their  officers.  A^hat,  then,  must  the  state  of  the  people  of  the  van¬ 
quished  countries  have  been  ?  Whole  provinces  were  frequently 
given  over  to  fire  and  sword  by  generals,  not  reputed  inhuman;  and 
such  was  the  progress  of  war  and  anarchy,  and  their  never-failing 
accompaniments,  famine  and  pestilence,  that  in  the  reign  of  Gal- 
lienus,  large  cities  were  left  utterly  desolate,  the  public  roads 
became  unsafe  from  immense  packs  of  wolves,  and  it  ivas  complied 
that  one-half  of  the  human  race  perished.  Thiswas  just  before  the 
76 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


21 


toleration  of  Christianity.  God  would  allow  the  wisest  and  bravest 
of  mankind  to  try  the  experiment  of  neglecting  his  gospel  and 
living  without  his  revelation,  until  all  mankind  might  be  convinced 
that  such  a  course  is  suicidal  to  nations.  “  Where  there  is  no 
vision,  the  people  perish." 

A  brief  reference  to  the  codes  of  morals  which  the  opposers  of 
the  Bible  would  substitute  for  it  in  Christian  lands,  shall  conclude 
our  proof  of  the  necessity  of  such  a  revelation  of  God's  law  to  man, 
as  shall  guide  his  life  to  peace  and  happiness.  , 

The  family  is  the  basis  of  the  commonwealth.  Destroy  family 
confidence  and  family  government,  and  you  destroy  society,  subvert 
civil  government,  and  bring  destruction  on  the  human  race. 
Mankind  are  so  generally  agreed  on  this  subject,  that  adultery, 
even  among  heathens,  is  regarded  and  punished  as  a  crime. 
The  whole  school  of  infidel  writers  and  anti-Bible  lecturers,  male 
and  female,  apologize  for,  and  vindicate  this  crime.  Lord  Herbert, 
the  first  of  the  English  Deists,  taught  that  the  indulgence  of  lust 
and  anger  is  no  more  to  be  blamed  than  the  thirst  occasioned  by 
the  dropsy,  or  the  drowsiness  produced  by  lethargy.  Mr.  Ilobbes 
asserted  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  all  things,  and  may  law¬ 
fully  get  them  if  he  can.  Bolingbroke  taught  that  man  is  merely 
a  superior  animal,  which  is  just  the  modern  development  theory, 
and  that  his  chief  end  is  to  gratify  the  appetites  and  inclinations 
of  the  flesh.  Hume,  whose  argument  against  miracles  is  so  fre¬ 
quently  in  the  mouths  of  American  Infidels,  taught  that  adultery 
must  be  practiced,  if  men  would  obtain  all  the  advantages  of  life, 
and  that  if  practiced  frequently,  it  would  by  degrees  come  to  be 
thought  no  crime  at  all — a  prediction  as  true  as  holy  writ,  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  which  hundreds  of  the  citizens  of  Cincinnati  can  attest, 
who  have  heard  a  lecturer  publicly  denounce  the  Bible  as  an  im¬ 
moral  book,  and  in  the  same  address  declare  that  if  a  woman  was 
married  to  a  man,  in  her  opinion  of  inferior  development,  it  was 
her  duty  to  leave  him  and  live  with  another.  This  duty  is  by  no 
means  neglected,  as  the  numerous  divorces,  spiritual  marriages, 
separations,  and  elopements  among  this  class  of  persons,  testify. 
Voltaire  held  that  it  was  not  agreeable  to  policy  to  regard  it  as  a 
vice  in  a  moral  sense,  ltousseau,  a  liar,  a  thief,  and  a  debauched 
profligate,  according  to  his  own  printed  “  Confessions/'  held  the  same 
high  opinion  of  the  inner  light  as  our  American  Spiritualists.  “7 
have  only  to  consult  myself”  said  he,  “  concerning  what  I  do.  All 

77 


22 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


that  I  feel  to  he  right,  is  right.”*  In  fact,  the  purport  of  this  inner 
light  doctrine,  is  exactly  as  Rousseau  expressed  it,  and  amounts 
simply  to  this,  Do  what  you  like. 

On  this  lawless  principle  these  men  acted.  Take,  for  example, 
the  chief  saint  on  the  calendar  of  American  Infidelity,  whose  birth¬ 
day  is  annually  celebrated  by  a  high  festival  in  this  city,  and  in 
whose  honor  hundreds  of  men,  who  would  like  to  be  reputed  decent 
citizens,  parade  our  streets  in  solemn  procession — Thomas  Paine — 
the  author  of  “  The  Age  of  Reason,”  as  his  character  is  depicted  by 
one  who  was  his  helper  in  the  work  of  blaspheming  God  and 
seducing  men,  and  whose  testimony,  therefore,  in  the  eyes  of  an 
infidel,  is  unimpeachable — William  Carver. 

“Mr.  Thomas  Paine:  I  received  your  letter,  dated  the  25  ult.,  in 
answer  to  mine,  dated  November  21,  and  after  minutely  examining 
its  contents,  I  found  that  you  had  taken  to  the  pitiful  subterfuge  of 
lying  for  your  defence.  You  say  that  you  paid  me  four  dollars  per 
week  for  your  board  and  lodging,  during  the  time  you  were  with  me, 
jn-ior  to  the  first  of  June  last;  which  was  the  day  that  I  went  up,  by 
your  order,  to  bring  you  to  York,  from  New  Rochelle.  It  is  fortunate 
for  me  that  I  have  a  living  evidence  that  saw  you  give  me  five  guineas, 
and  no  more,  in  my  shop,  at  your  departure  at  that  time;  but  you 
said  you  would  have  given  me  more,  but  that  you  had  no  more  with 
you  at  present.  You  say,  also,  that  you  found  your  own  liquors  dur¬ 
ing  the  time  you  boarded  with  me;  but  you  should  have  said,  £I  found 
only  a  small  part  of  the  liquor  I  drank  during  my  stay  with  you; 
this  part  I  purchased  of  John  Fellows,  which  was  a  demi-john.  of 
brandy,  containing  four  gallons,  and  this  did  not  serve  you  three 
weeks.’  This  can  be  proved,  and  I  mean  not  to  say  any  thing  I  cannot 
prove,  for  I  hold  truth  as  a  precious  jewel.  It  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  you  drank  one  quart  of  brandy  per  day,  at  my  expense,  during 
the  different  times  you  boarded  with  me;  the  demi-john  above  men¬ 
tioned  excepted,  and  the  last  fourteen  weeks  you  were  sick.  Is  not 
this  a  supply  of  liquor  for  dinner  and  supper.”  *  *  *  *  “I  have 

often  wondered  that  a  French  woman  and  three  children  should  leave 
France  and  all  their  connections,  to  follow  Thomas  Paino  to  America. 
Suppose  I  were  to  go  to  my  native  country,  England,  and  take  another 
man’s  wife  and  three  children  of  his,  and  leave  my  wife  and  children 
in  this  country.  What  would  be  the  natural  conclusion  in  the  minds 
of  the  people,  but  that  there  was  some  criminal  connection  between 
the  woman  and  myself?”  t 

Such  is  the  morality  of  those  who  denounce  the  Bible  as  an  im- 


*  Horne’s  Introduction  to  the  Scriptures,  Vol.  I,  p.  25. 

f  Printed  repeatedly  in  the  New  York  newspapers,  and  given  entire  in  the  Report  of 
the  discussion  between  Dr.  Berg  and  Mr.  Barker.  W.  S.  Young,  Philadelphia,  1854. 

78 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


23 


moral  book,  and  blaspheme  the  God  of  the  Bible  as  too  unholy  to 
be  reverenced  or  adored!  “But  beloved,  remember  ye  the  words 
which  were  spoken  before  of  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ; 
how  that  they  told  you  there  should  be  mockers  in  the  last  time, 
who  should  walk  after  their  own  ungodly  lusts.  These  bo  they 
who  separate  themselves,  sensual,  having  not  the  spirit.”  In  the 
Free  Love  Institute  about  to  be  established  in  our  vicinity,  we  shall 
have  the  full  development  of  these  filthy  principles  and  practices. 

Let  fathers  and  husbands  look  to  this  matter.  Especially  let 
ungodly  men  set  to  work  and  devise  some  law  of  man  capable  of 
binding  those  who  renounce  the  law  of  God,  and  with  it  all  human 
authority.  For  there  can  be  no  law  of  man,  unless  there  is  a 
revealed  law  of  God.  “What  right,”  says  the  Pantheist,  the  Fou- 
rierist,  the  Spiritualist,  the  Atheist,  “what  right  have  you  to  com¬ 
mand  me?  Bight  and  wrong  are  only  matters  of  feeling,  and 
your  feelings  are  no  rule  to  me.  The  will  of  the  majority  is  only 
the  law  of  might,  and  if  I  can  evade  it,  or  overcome  it,  my  will  is 
as  good  as  theirs.  Oaths  are  only  an  idle  superstition — there  is  no 
judge,  no  judgment,  no  punishment  for  the  false  swearer.”  Take 
away  the  moral  sanction  of  law,  and  the  sacredness  of  oaths,  and 
what  basis  have  you  left  for  any  government,  save  the  point  of  the 
bayonet?  Take  away  the  revealed  law  of  God,  and  yo.u  leave  not 
a  vestige  of  any  authority  to  any  human  law.  “We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident,”  said  the  immortal  framers  of  the  basis  of 
the  American  Confederation,  “that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights.” 
It  was  well  said.  The  Bights  of  God,  are  the  only  basis  of  the 
Bights  of  Man. 

Once  in  modern  times,  the  rejectors  of  the  Bible  had  opportunity 
to  try  the  experiment  of  ruling  a  people  on  a  large  scale,  and  giving 
the  world  a  specimen  of  an  infidel  republic.  You  have  heard  one 
of  them  here  express  his  admiration  of  that  government,  and 
declare  his  intention  to  present  a  public  vindication  of  it.  Of 
course,  as  soon  as  practicable,  that  which  they  admire  they  will 
imitate,  and  the  scenes  of  Paris  and  Lyons  will  be  re-enacted 
in  Louisville  and  Cincinnati.  Our  Bibles  will  be  collected  and 
burned  on  a  dung  heap.  Death  will  be  declared  an  eternal  sleep. 
God  will  be  declared  a  fiction.  Beligious  worship  will  be  re¬ 
nounced  ;  the  Sabbath  abolished ;  and  a  prostitute,  crowned  with 
garlands,  will  receive  the  adorations  of  the  Mayors  and  Council- 

79 


24 


HAVE  WE  ANY  NEED  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

men  of  Cincinnati  and  Newport.  The  reign  of  terror  will  com¬ 
mence.  The  guillotine  shall  take  its  place  on  the  Fifth  Street 
Market  place.  Proscription  will  follow  proscription.  Women  will 
denounce  their  husbands,  and  children  their  parents,  as  bad 
citizens,  and  lead  them  to  the  axe  ;  and  well  dressed  ladies,  filled 
with  savage  ferocity,  will  seize  the  mangled  bodies  of  their  mur¬ 
dered  countrymen  between  their  teeth.  The  Licking  will  be 
choked  with  the  bodies  of  men,  and  the  Ohio  dyed  with  their  blood; 
and  those  whose  infancy  had  sheltered  them  from  the  fire  of  the 
rabble  soldiery,  be  bayoneted  as  they  cling  to  the  knees  of  their 
destroyers.*  The  common  doom  of  man  commuted  for  the  violence 
of  the  sword,  the  bayonet,  the  sucking  boat,  and  the  guillotine; 
the  knell  of  the  nation  tolled,  and  the  world  summoned  to  its  exe¬ 
cution  and  funeral,  will  need  no  preacher  to  expound  the  text, 
Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish. 

*  Horne's  Introduction  to  the  Scriptures,  vol.  i,  p.  26;  where  ample  references  to 
cotemporary  French  writers  are  given. 


No.  26. 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


11  The  salutation  of  me  Paul,  ivith  mine  own  hand:  which  is  the 

token  in  every  epistle — so  I  write.  The  grace  of  our  Lord 

Jesus  Christ  be  ivith  you  all.  Amen.” — 2  Tiiess.  3 :  IT. 

Religion  rests  not  on  dogmas,  but  on  a  number  of  great  facts. 
In  the  last  Tract  we  found  one  of  these  to  be,  that  people  des¬ 
titute  of  a  revelation  of  God’s  will,  ever  have  been,  and  now  are 
ignorant,  miserable  and  wicked.  If  it  wore  at  all  needful,  we 
might  go  on  to  show,  that  there  are  people  in  the  world,  who 
have  decent  clothing  and  comfortable  houses — work  well-tilled 
farms  with  sub-soil  ploughs  and  McCormick  reapers — yoke  pow¬ 
erful  streams  to  the  mill  wheel,  and  harness  the  iron  horse  to 
the  market  wagon — career  their  floating  palaces  up  the  opposing 
floods — line  their  coasts  with  flocks  of  white  winged  schooners, 
and  show  their  flags  on  every  coast  of  earth — invent  and  make 
every  thing  that  man  will  buy,  from  the  brass  button,  dear  to 
the  barbarian,  to  the  folio  of  the  philosopher — erect  churches  in 
all  their  towns,  schools  in  every  village — make  their  blacksmiths 
more  learned  than  the  priests  of  Egypt,  their  Sabbath  scholars 
wiser  than  the  philosophers  of  Greece,  and  even  the  criminals 
in  their  jails,  more  decent  characters  than  the  sages,  heroes,  and 
gods  of  the  lands  without  the  Bible  ;  and  that  these  people  are 
the  people  who  possess  a  Book,  which  they  think  contains  a  reve¬ 
lation  from  God,  teaching  them  how  to  live  well — which  Book 
they  call  the  Bible.  This  is  the  book  about  which  we  make  our 
present  inquiry,  Who  wrote  it? 

The  fact  being  utterly  undeniable,  that  those  blessings  are 
found  among  the  people  who  possess  the  Bible,  and  only  among 
them,  we  at  once,  and  summarily,  dismiss  the  arrogant  falsehood 
presented  to  prevent  any  inquiry  about  the  Book,  namely,  that 
“Christianity  is  just  like  any  other  superstition,  and  its  sacred 
books  like  the  impositions  of  Chinese,  Indian,  or  Mohammedan 
impostors.  They  too  are  religious,  and  have  their  sacred  books 
which  they  believe  to  be  divine.”  A  profound  generalization  in¬ 
deed!  Is  a  peach  tree  just  like  a  liorse-chesnut,  or  a  scrub-oak, 
or  a  honey-locust?  They  are  all  trees,  and  have  leaves  on  them. 
The  Bible  is  just  as  like  the  Yi  King,  or  the  Yedas,  or  the  Koran* 
G  81 


2 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


as  a  Christian  American  or  Briton  is  like  a  Chinaman,  a  Turk, 
or  a  Hindoo.  But  it  is  too  absurd  to  begin  any  discussion  with 
these  learned  Thebans  of  the  relative  merits  of  the  Bible  as  com- , 
pared  with  the  Yedas,  and  the  Chinese  Classics,  of  which  they 
have  never  read  a  single  page.  Let  them  stick  to  what  they 
pretend  to  know. 

The  Bible  is  a  great  fact  in  the  world’s  history,  known  alike 
to  the  prince  and  the  peasant,  the  simple  and  the  sage.  It  is 
perused  with  pleasure  by  the  child,  and  pondered  with  patience 
by  the  philosopher.  Its  psalms  are  carolled  on  the  school  green, 
cheer  the  chamber  of  sickness,  are  chanted  by  the  mother  over 
her  cradle,  by  the  orphan  over  the  tomb.  Here — thousands  of 
miles  away  from  the  land  of  its  birth — in  a  world  undiscovered 
for  centuries  after  it  was  finished,  in  a  language  unknown  alike 
at  Athens  and  Jerusalem,  it  rules  as  lovingly  and  as  powerfully 
as  in  its  native  soil.  To  show  that  its  power  is  not  derived  from 
race  or  clime,  it  converts  the  Sandwich  Islands  into  a  civilized 
nation,  and  transforms  the  New  Zealand  cannibal  into  a  British 
ship-owner,  the  Indian  warrior  into  an  American  Editor,  and 
the  Negro  slave  into  the  President  of  a  free  African  Republic. 
It  does  not  look  as  if  it  had  finished  its  course  and  ceased  from 
its  triumphs.  Translated  into  the  hundred  and  fifty  languages 
spoken  by  nine  hundred  millions  of  men,  carried  by  ten  thousand 
heralds  to  every  corner  of  the  globe,  sustained  by  the  cheerful 
contributions  and  fervent  prayers  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
ardent  disciples,  it  is  still  going  forth  conquering  and  to  con¬ 
quer.  Is  there  any  other  book  so  generally  read,  so  greatly 
loved,  so  zealously  propagated,  so  widely  diffused,  so  uniform  in 
its  results,  and  so  powerful  and  blessed  in  its  influences?  Ho 
you  know  any?  If  you  can  not  name  any  book,  no,  nor  any 
thousand  books,  which  in  these  respects  equal  the  Bible, — then 
it  stands  out  clear  and  distinct,  and  separate  from  all  other 
authorship;  and  with  an  increased  emphasis  comes  our  question: 
Who  wrote  it? 

With  all  these  palpable  facts  in  view,  to  come  to  the  examina¬ 
tion  of  this  question  as  if  we  knew  nothing  about  them,  or  as  if 
knowing  them  well,  we  cared  nothing  at  all  about  them,  and 
were  determined  to  deny  them  their  natural  influence  in  begetting 
within  us  a  very  strong  presumption  in  favor  of  its  divine  origin, 
were  to  declare  that  our  heads  and  hearts  wero  alike  closed  against 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


3 


light  and  love.  Bat  to  enter  on  this  inquiry  into  the  origin  of 
the  Book  -which  has  produced  such  results,  with  a  preconceived 
•opinion  that  it  must  be  a  forgery  and  an  imposition,  the  fruit 
of  a  depraved  heart  and  a  lying  tongue,  implies  so  much  home- 
born  deceit,  that  till  the  heart  capable  of  such  a  prejudice  be 
completely  changed,  no  reasoning  can  have  any  solid  fulcrum 
of  truth  or  goodness  to  rest  on.  It  is  sheer  folly  to  talk  of  one’s 
being  wholly  unprejudiced  in  such  an  inquiry.  No  man  ever  was 
or  could  be  so.  As  his  sympathies  are  towards  goodness  and 
virtue,  and  the  happiness  of  mankind,  or  towards  pride  and  deceit, 
and  selfishness,  and  savageness,  so  will  his  prejudices  be  for  or 
against  the  Bible. 

On  looking  at  the  Bible,  we  find  it  composed  of  a  number  of 
separate  treatises,  written  by  different  writers,  at  various  times ; 
some  parts  fifteen  hundred  years  before  the  others.  We  find, 
also,  that  it  treats  of  the  very  beginning  of  the  world  before  man 
was  made,  and  of  other  matters  of  which  we  have  no  other 
authentic  history  to  compare  with  it.  Again,  we  find  portions 
which  treat  of  events  connected  in  a  thousand  places  with  the 
affairs  of  the  Boman  Empire,  of  which  we  have  several  credible 
histories.  Now,  there  are  two  modes  of  investigation  open  to 
us.  the  dogmatic  and  the  inductive.  We  mav  take  either.  Wo 
may  construct  for  ourselves,  from  the  most  flimsy  suppositions, 
a  metaphysical  balloon,  inflated  with  self-conceit  into  the  rotun¬ 
dity  of  a  cosmogony,  according  to  which,  in  our  opinion,  the 
world  should  have  been  made,  and  we  may  paint  it  over  with 
the  figures  of  the  various  animals  and  noble  savages  which 
ought  to  have  sprung  up  out  of  its  fornea,  and  we  may  stripe 
its  history  to  suit  our  notions  of  the  progress  of  such  a  world, 
and  soaring  high  into  the  clouds,  after  a  little  preliminary 
amusement  in  the  discovery  of  eternal  red  hot  fire-mists  and 
condensing  comets,  and  so  forth,  we  may  come  down  upon  the 
summit  of  some  of  this  earth’s  mountains,  say  Ararat,  and  take 
a  survey  of  the  Bible  process  of  world  making.  Finding  that 
the  Creator  of  the  world  had  to  make  his  materials — a  business 
in  which  no  other  world  maker  ever  did  engage — and  further, 
that  God’s  plan  of  making  it  by  no  means  corresponds  to  our 
patent  process,  and  that  the  article  is  not  at  all  like  what  we 
intend  to  produce  when  we  go  into  the  business,  and  that  it  does 
not  work  .according  to  our  expectations,  wo  can  denounce  the 
83 


4 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


whole  as  a  very  mean  affair,  and  the  Book  which  describes  it 
as  not  worth  reading.  If  one  wants  some  new  subject  for  mer¬ 
riment,  and  does  not  mind  making  a  fool  of  himself,  and  is 
not  to  be  terrified  by  old-fashioned  notions  about  God  Almighty, 
and  is  perfectly  confident  that  God  can  tell  him  nothing  that  he 
does  not  know  better  already,  and  merely  wants  to  see  whether 
he  is  not  trying  to  pass  off  old  fables  upon  wide  awake  people 
for  facts — this  dogmatic  plan  will  suit  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  one  is  tolerably  convinced  that  he  does 
not  know  every  thing,  and  probably  not  much  of  the  world  he 
lives  in,  less  of  its  .history,  and  nothing  at  all  about  the  best 
way  of  making  it,  and  that  when  it  needs  mending  it  will  not  be 
sent  to  his  workshop — that  he  knows  nothing  about  what  hap¬ 
pened  before  he  was  born  unless  what  other  people  tell  him,  and 
that,  though  men  do  err,  yet  all  men  are  not  liars — that  all  the 
blessings  of  education,  civilization,  law  and  liberty,  from  the  penny 
primer  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  came  to  him 
solely  through  the  channel  of  abundant,  reliable  testimony — that 
the  only  way  in  which  he  can  ever  know  any  thing  beyond  his* 
eyesight  with  certainty,  is  to  gather  testimony  about  it,  and  com¬ 
pare  the  evidence,  and  enquire  into  the  character  of  the  wit¬ 
nesses — that  when  one  has  done  so,  he  becomes  so  satisfied  of 
the  truth  of  the  report  that  he  would  rather  risk  his  life  upon 
it  than  upon  the  certainty  of  any  mathematical  problem,  or  of 
any  scientific  truth,  whatever — that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  liun 
dred  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  a  thousand  times  more  cer¬ 
tain  that  the  Yankees  whipped  the  British  in  1776,  declared  the 
Colonies  free  and  independent  States,  and  made  Washington  Presi¬ 
dent,  than  they  ever  will  be  that  all  bodies  attract  each  other 
directly  as  their  mass,  and  inversely  as  the  squares  of  their  dis¬ 
tances,  that  the  sum  of  the  angles  of  any  triangle  is  equal  to  two 
right  angles,  or  that  the  earth  is  nearer  the  sun  in  winter  than  jin 
summer — that  certainty  about  the  Bible  History  is  just  as  attain¬ 
able  and  just  as  reliable  as  certainty  about  American  history-,  if 
he  will  seek  it  in  the  same  way — and  if  he  is  really  desirous  to 
know  how  this  Book  was  written,  which  alone  in  the  world  teaches 
men  how  to  obtain  peace  with  God,  how  to  live  well,  and  how  to 
die  with  a  firm  and  joyful  hope  of  a  resurrection  to  life  eternal, 
and  what  part  of  it  is  easiest  to  prove  either  true  or  false — then 
he  will  take  the  inductive  mode.  He  will  begin  at  the  present 
84 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  5 

time,  and  trace  the  history  up  to  the  times  in  which  the  Book  was 
written.  lie  will  ascertain  what  he  can  about  that  part  of  it 
which  was  last  written — the  New  Testament — and  begin  with  that 
part  of  it  which  lies  nearest  him — the  Epistles.  By  the  com¬ 
parison  of  the  documents  themselves,  with  all  kinds  of  history  and 
monuments  which  throw  light  on  the  period,  he  will  try  to  ascer¬ 
tain  whether  they  are  genuine  or  not.  And  from  one  well  ascer¬ 
tained  position  he  will  proceed  to  another,  until  he  has  traversed 
the  whole  ground  of  the  genuineness  of  the  writings,  the  truth  of 
the  story,  and  the  divine  authority  of  the  doctrine. 

This  is  my  plan  of  investigation.  One  thing  at  a  time,  and  the 
nearest  first.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  inquire  whether  it  be  in¬ 
spired  by  God,  if  it  be  really  a  forgery  of  impostors — nor  whether 
the  Gospel  stor}*  is  worthy  of  credit,  if  the  only  book  which  con¬ 
tains  it  be  a  religious  novel  of  the  third  or  fourth  century?  Wo 
dismiss  then  the  questions  of  the  Inspiration,  or  even  the  truth  of 
the  New  Testament,  till  we  have  ascertained  its  authors.  We 
take  up  the  Book,  and  find  that  it  purports  to  be  a  relation  of  the 
planting  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  of  its  laws  and  ordinances,  and 
of  the  life,  death  and  resurrection  of  its  Founder,  written  by  eight 
of  his  companions,  at  various  periods  and  places,  towards  the  close 
of  the  first  century.  There  is  a  general  opinion  among  all  Chris¬ 
tians  that  the  Book  was  composed  then,  and  by  these  persons.  We 
want  to  know  why  they  think  so  ?  In  short,  is  it  a  genuine  book, 
or  merely  a  collection  of  myths  with  the  apostles’  names  appended 
to  them  by  some  lying  monks  ?  Is  it  a  fact,  or  a  forgery  ? 

In  any  historical  inquiry,  avc  want  some  fixed  point  of  time  from 
which  to  take  our  departure ;  and  in  this  case  we  want  to  know  if 
there  is  any  period  of  antiquity  in  which  undeniably  this  Book  was 
in  existence,  and  receded  as  genuine  by  Christian  societies.  For 
I  Avill  not  suppose  my  readers  as  ignorant  as  some  of  those  infidels 
who  allege  that  it  was  made  by  the  Bible  Society.  It  used  to  be 
the  fashion  with  those  of  them  who  pretended  to  learning,  to  affirm 
that  it  Avas  made  by  the  Council  of  Laodicea,  in  A.  D.  364;  be¬ 
cause,  in  order  to  guard  the  churches  against  spurious  epistles  and 
gospels,  that  Council  published  a  list  of  those  which  the  apostles 
did  actually  write,  Avhich  thenceforth  were  generally  bound  in 
one  volume. 

.  Before  that  time,  the  four  gospels  Avere  always  bound  in  one 
volume  and  called  the  Gospel.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the 

85 


6 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


Epistles  universally  and  undoubtedly  known  to  be  written  by 
Paul,  to  the  Churches  of  Thessalonica,  Galatia,  Rome,  Corinth, 
Ephesus,  Philippi,  Colosse,  and  to  Philemon,  a  well  known  resi¬ 
dent  of  that  city — and  those  to  Timothy  and  Titus,  missionaries 
of  world-wide  celebrity — the  First  General  Epistle  of  Peter,  and 
the  First  General  Epistle  of  John,  which  were  at  once  widely 
circulated  to  check  prevailing  heresies — -were  bound  in  another 
volume  and  called  “ The  Apostle.”  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
being  general,  and  anonymous,  i.  e.,  not  bearing  the  name  of  any 
particular  church,  or  person,  to  whom  any  body  who  merely 
looked  at  it  could  refer  for  proof  of  its  genuineness,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  other  Epistles — was  not  so  soon  known  by  the  European 
churches  to  be  written  by  Paul.  The  General  Epistles  of  James, 
Jude,  and  the  Second  General  Epistle  of  Peter,  lying  under  the 
same  difficulty,  and  besides  being  very  disagreeable  to  easy  going 
Christians  from  their  sharp  rebukes  of  hypocrisy — the  Second  and 
Third  Epistles  of  John,  from  their  brevity — and  the  Revelation  of 
John,  being  one  of  the  last  written  of  all  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  the  most  mysterious — were  not  so  generally  known 
beyond  the  churches  where  the  originals  were  deposited,  until  the 
other  two  collections  had  been  formed.  They  were  accordingly 
kept  as  separate  books,  and  sometimes  bound  up  in  a  third  volume 
of  Apostolical  writings.  Besides  these,  at  the  time  of  the  Council 
of  Laodicea,  and  for  a  long  time  before,  other  books  written  by 
Barnabas,  Clement,  Polycarp,  and  other  companions  and  disciples 
of  the  apostles,  and  forged  gospels  and  epistles  attributed  by  here¬ 
tics  to  the  apostles,  were  circulated  through  the  churches,  and  read 
by  Christians.  The  Council  of  Laodicea  did,  what  many  learned 
men  had  done  before  them;  it  investigated  the  evidence  upon  which 
any  of  these  books  was  attributed  to  an  apostle — and  finding  evi¬ 
dence  to  satisfy  them,  that  the  gospel  written  by  Luke  had  the 
sanction  of  the  apostle  Paul,  that  the  gospel  of  Mark  was  revised 
by  the  apostle  Peter,  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written 
by  Paul,  and  the  other  epistles  by  John,  Jude,  James,  and  Peter, 
respectively,  and  not  finding  evidence  to  satisfy  them  about  the 
Revelation  of  John,  they  expressed  their  opinion,  and  the  grounds 
of  it,  for  the  information  of  the  world.*  Into  these  reasons  we 
will  hereafter  inquire,  for  our  faith  in  Holy  Scripture  does  not  rest 


*  .Acta  Coneil,  sub  voce  Laodicea,  Canon  iv.  Lardner  vi. :  p.  363. 
86 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


7 


6n  their  canons.  We  are  not  now  asking  what  they  thought  but 
what  they  did,  and  we  find  that  they  did  criticise  certain  books, 
reported  to  be  written  by  the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ  some  three 
hundred  years  before,  approve  some,  and  reject  others  as  spurious, 
and  publish  a  list  of  those  they  thought  genuine.  Infidels  admit 
this,  and  on  the  strength  of  it  long  asserted  that  the  Council  of 
Laodicea  made  the  New  Testatament.  At  length  they  became 
ashamed  of  the  stupid  absurdity  of  alleging  that  men  could 
criticise  the  claims,  and  catalogue  the  names  of  books  before  they 
were  written ;  and  they  now  shift  back  the  writing — or  the  authen¬ 
tication  of' the  New  Testament — for  they  are  not  quite  sure  which, 
though  the  majority  incline  to  the  former — to  the  Emperor  Con¬ 
stantine  and  the  Council  of  Nice,  which  met  in  the  year  325. 
Why  they  have  fixed  on  the  Council  of  Nice  is  more  than  I  can 
tell.  They  might  as  avcII  say  the  Council  of  Trent,  or  the  West¬ 
minster  Assembly,  either  of  which  had  just  as  much  to  do  with 
the  Canon  of  Scripture.  However,  on  some  vague  hearsay  that 
the  Council  of  Nice  and  the  Emperor  Constantine  made  the  Bible, 
hundreds  in  this  city  are  now  risking  the  salvation  of  their 
souls. 

We  have  in  this  assertion,  nevertheless,  as  many  facts  admitted 
as  will  serve  our  present  purpose.  There  did  exist,  then,  undenia¬ 
bly,  in  the  year  325,  large  numbers  of  Christian  churches  in  the 
Roman  Empire,  sufficiently  numerous  to  make  it  politic,  in  the 
opinion  of  infidels,  for  a  candidate  for  the  empire  to  profess  Chris¬ 
tianity  ;  sufficiently  powerful  to  secure  his  success,  notwithstand¬ 
ing  the  desperate  struggles  of  the  heathen  party;  and  sufficiently 
religious,  or  if  you  like  superstitious,  to  make  it  politic  for  an 
emperor  and  his  politicians  to  give  up  the  senate,  the  court,  the 
camp,  the  chase  and  the  theater,  and  weary  themselves  with  long 
prayers  and  longer  speeches  of  preachers  about  Bible  religion. 
Now  that  is  certainly  a  remarkable  fact,  and  all  the  more  remark¬ 
able  if  we  now  inquire,  How  came  it  so?  For  these  men, 
preachers,  prince,  and  people,  were  brought  up  to  worship  Jupiter 
and  the  thirty  thousand  gods  of  Olympus,  after  the  heathen 
fashion,  and  leave  the  care  of  religion  to  heathen  priests,  who 
never  troubled  their  heads  about  books  or  doctrines  after  they 
had  offered  their  sacrifices.  In  all  the  records  of  the  world,  there 
is  no  instance  of  a  general  council  of  heathen  priests  to  settle  the 
religion  of  their  people.  How  happens  it  then  that  the  human  race 


8 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


has  of  a  sudden  waked  up  to  such  a  strange  sense  of  the  folly  of 
idolatry  and  the  value  of  religion?  The  Council  of  Nice  and 
the  Emperor  Constantine  and  hi.s  councilors  making  a  Bible,  is 
a  proof  of  a  wonderful  revolution  in  the  world's  religion — a  phe¬ 
nomenon  far  more  surprising  than  if  the  Secretaries  of  State,  and 
the  Senate,  and  President  Pierce,  should  leave  the  Capitol  and 
post  olf  to  Boston,  to  attend  the  meetings  of  a  Methodist  Confer¬ 
ence  assembled  to  make  a  Hymn  Book.  Now  what  is  the  cause 
of  this  remarkable  conversion  of  prince,  priests,  and  people  ? 
IIow  did  they  all  get  religion?  How  did  they  get  it  so  sud¬ 
denly?  How  did  they  get  so  much  of  it? 

The  infidel  gives  no  answer,  except  to  tell  us*  that  the  aus¬ 
terity,  purity  and  zeal  of  the  first  Christians,  their  good  discipline, 
their  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  the  general  judg¬ 
ment,  and  their  persuasion  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  wrought 
miracles,  had  made  a  great  many  converts.  This  is  just  as  if  I 
inquired  how  a  great  fire  originated,  and  you  should  tell  me  that 
it  burned  fast  because  it  was  very  hot.  What  I  want  to  know  is, 
how  it  happened  that  these  licentious  Greeks,  and  Bomans,  and 
Asiatics,  became  austere  and  pure — how  these  frivolous  philoso¬ 
phers  suddenly  became  so  zealous  about  religion — what  implanted 
the  belief  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  of  the  judgment  to 
come  in  the  sceptical  minds  of  these  heathen  scoffers — and  how 
did  the  pagans  of  Italy,  Egypt,  Spain,  Germany,  Britain,  come  to 
believe  in  the  miracles  of  one  who  lived  hundreds  of  years  before, 
and  thousands  of  miles  away,  or  to  caret  a  straw  whether  the 
written  accounts  of  them  were  true  or  false  ?  According  to  the 
infidel  account,  the  Council  of  Nice  and  the  Emperor  Constan¬ 
tine’s  Bible-making,  is  a  most  extraordinary  business — a  phe¬ 
nomenon  without  any  natural  cause,  and  they  will  allow  no 
supernatural — a  greater  miracle  than  any  recorded  in  the  Bible. 

If  we  inquire,  however,  of  the  parties  attending  that  Council, 
what  the  state  of  the  case  is,  we  shall  learn  that  they  believed — • 
whether  truly  or  erroneously  we  are  not  now  inquiring— but  they 
believed  that  a  teacher  sent  from  God,  had  appeared  in  Palestine 
two  hundred  and  ninety  years  before,  and  had  taught  this  religion 
which  they  had  embraced;  had  performed  wonderful  miracles, 
such  as  opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  healing  lepers,  raising  the 


*  Gibbon’s  Decline  and  Fall,  Chap 


bd 


'V. 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


9 


dead ;  that  he  had  been  put  to  death  by  the  Roman  Governor, 
Pontius  Pilate,  and  had  risen  again  from  the  dead,  and  had 
spoken  to  hundreds  of  people,  and  gone  out  and  in  among  them 
for  six  weeks  after  his  resurrection  ;  that  he  had  ascended  up 
through  the  air  to  heaven  in  the  sight  of  numbers  of  witnesses, 
and  had  promised  that  he  would  come  again  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven  to  raise  the  dead,  and  judge  every  man  according  to  his 
works  ;  that  before  he  went  away  he  appointed  twelve  of  his  inti¬ 
mate  companions  to  teach  his  religion  to  the  world,  giving  them 
power  to  work  miracles  in  proof  of  their  divine  commission,  and 
requiring  mankind  to  hear  them  as  they  would  hear  him  ;  that 
they  and  their  followers  did  so,  in  spite'  of  persecutions,  sufferings, 
and  death,  with  so  much  success,  that  immense  numbers  were  per¬ 
suaded  to  give  up  idolatry  and  its  filthiness,  and  profess  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  its  holiness,  and  brave  the  fury  of  the  heathen  mob,  and 
the  vengeance  of  the  Roman  law — that  a  difference  of  opinion 
having  arisen  among  them  as  to  whether  this  teacher  was  an  angel 
from  heaven,  or  God  ;  whether  they  should  pray  and  sing  the 
Psalms  to  him  as  Athanasius  and  his  party  believed,  or  only 
give  him  some  lesser  honor  as  Arius  and  his  party  believed — and 
this  difference  making  all  the  difference  between  idolatry  on  the 
one  hand  and  impiety  on  the  other,  and  so  involving  their  ever¬ 
lasting  salvation  or  damnation — they  had  embraced  the  first  op¬ 
portunity  after  the  cessation  of  persecution,  and  the  accession  of 
the  first  Christian  Emperor,  to  assemble  three  hundred  and 
eighteen  of  their  most  learned  clergyman,  of  both  sides,  and  from 
all  countries  between  Spain  and  Persia,  to  discuss  these  solemn 
questions;  and  that,  through  the  whole  of  the  discussions,  both 
sides  appealed  to  the  writings  of  the  Apostles,  as  being  then  wrell 
known,  and  of  unquestioned  authority  with  every  one  wTho  held 
the  Christian  name.  These  facts  being  utterly  indisputable,  are 
acknowledged  by  all  persons,  infidel  or  Christian,  at  all  acquainted 
with  history  *. 

Here  then  we  have  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  at  the 
Council  of  Nice  well  known  to  the  whole  world ;  and  the  Council, 
eo  far  from  giving  any  authority  to  them,  boiving  to  theirs, — both 


*  The  original  authorities  may  he  found  collected  in  the  4th  vol.  of  Lardner’s  Cred¬ 
ibility  of  the  Gospel  History.  Abstracts  of  them,  with  ample  references,  in  Mosheim 
and  Neauder's  Ecclesiastical  Histories. 


89 


10 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


Arian  and  Orthodox  with  one  consent  acknowledging  that  the 
whole  Christian  world  received  them  as  the  writings  of  the  Apostles 
of  Christ.  There  were  venerable  men  of  fourscore  and  ten  at  that 
Council ;  if  these  books  had  been  lirst  introduced  in  their  lifetime, 
they  must  have  known  it.  There  were  men  there  whose  parents 
had  heard  the  Scriptures  read  in  church  from  their  childhood, 
and  so  could  not  be  imposed  upon  with  a  new  Bible.  The  New 
Testament  could  not  be  less  than  three  generations  old,  else  one  or 
other  of  the  disputants  would  have  exposed  the  novelty  of  its 
introduction,  from  his  own  information.  The  Council  of  Nice  then, 
did  not  make  the  New  Testament.  It  was  a  book  well  known, 
ancient,  and  of  undoubted  authority  among  all  Christians,  ages 
before  that  Council.  The  existence  of  Neio  Testament  Scriptures 
then ,  ages  before  the  Council  of  Nice ,  is  a  Great  Fact. 

We  next  take  up  the  assertions,  propounded  with  a  show  of 
learning,  that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  especially  the 
gospels,  were  not  in  use,  and  were  not  known  till  the  third  cen¬ 
tury ;  that  they  are  not  the  productions  of  contemporary  writers ; 
that  the  alleged  ocular  testimony  or  proximity  in  point  of  time 
of  the  sacred  historians  to  the  events  recorded  is  mere  assumption, 
originating  in  the  titles  which  Biblical  books  bear  in  our  canon  ; 
that  we  stand  here  (in  the  gospel  history),  upon  purely  mythical 
and  poetical  ground ;  and  that  the  gospels  and  epistles  arc  a  grad¬ 
ually  formed  collection  of  myths,  having  little  or  no  historic 
reality.  So  Strauss,  Eichorn,  DeWette,  and  their  disciples  here, 
attempt  to  set  aside  the  New  Testament.  In  plain  English,  it  is 
a  collection  of  forgeries. 

Now  we  might  easily  show  that  these  assertions  are  absurd ; 
that  in  the  hundred  years  between  the  death  of  the  last  of  the 
Apostles,  and  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  there  was  not 
time  to  form  a  mythology;  that  the  times  of  Trajan’s  persecution, 
and  that  of  the  philosophic  Aurelius  and  the  busy  bustling  age  of 
Severus,  were  not  the  times  for  such  a  business  ;  that  bigoted  Jews 
would  not  and  could  not  have  made  such  a  character  as  Jesus  of 
Nazareth — and  the  philosophers  of  that  day,  Celsus  and  Porphyry, 
for  instance,  hated  it  when  presented  to  them,  as  heartily  as  either 
Strauss  or  Paine ;  and  that  there  were  not  wanting  thousands  of 
enemies,  able  and  willing,  to  expose  such  a  forgery. 

But  we  prefer  the  direct  course  of  proving  these  assertions  false, 
and  we  will  draw  the  proof  from  enemies.  It  is  an  undeniable 
90 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


11 


fact  that  in  the  close  of  the  second  century,  Celsus,  an  Epicurean 
philosopher,  wrote  a  work  against  Christianity,  entitled,  “  The 
Word  of  Truth,”  in  which  he  quotes  passages  from  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament,  and  so  many  of  them,  that  from  the  fragments  of  his 
work  which  remain,  we  could  gather  all  the  principal  facts  of  the 
birth,  teaching,  miracles,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ, 
if  the  New  Testament  should  be  lost.  If  Paine  quotes  the  New 
Testament  to  ridicule  it,  no  man  can  deny  that  such  a  book  was  in 
existence  at  the  time  he  wrote.  If  he  takes  the  pains  to  write  a 
book  to  confute  it,  it  is  self-evident  that  it  is  in  circulation,  and 
possessed  of  influence.  So  Celsus'  attempt  to  reply  to  the  gospels, 
and  his  quotations  from  them,  are  conclusive  proofs  that  these  books 
were  generally  circulated  and  believed,  and  held  to  be  of  authority 
at  the  time  he  wrote.  Further,  he  shows  every  disposition  to 
present  every  argument  which  could  possibly  damage  the  Christian 
cause.  In  fact,  our  modern  infidels  have  done  little  more  than 
serve  up  his  old  objections.  Now  nothing  could  have  served  his 
purpose  better  than  to  prove  that  the  records  of  the  history  of 
Christ  were  forgeries  of  a  late  date.  This  would  have  saved  him 
all  further  trouble,  and  settled  the  fate  of  Christianity  conclusively. 
Ho  had  every  opportunity  of  ascertaining  the  fact,  living  as  he  did 
so  near  the  times  and  scenes  of  the  gospel  history,  and  surrounded 
by  heretics  and  false  Christians,  who  would  gladly  have  given  him 
every  information.  But  he  never  once  intimates  the  least  suspicion 
of  such  a  thing — never  questions  the  gospels  as  books  of  history— 
nor  denies  the  miracles  recorded  in  them,  but  attributes  them  to 
magic.*  Here,  then,  we  have  testimony  as  acceptable  to  an  infidel 
as  that  of  Strauss  or  Voltaire — in  fact,  utterly  undeniable  by  any 
man  of  common  sense — that  the  New  Testament  was  well  known 
and  generally  received  by  Christians  as  authoritative,  when  Celsus 
wrote  his  reply  to  it,  in  the  end  of  the  second  century.  If  it  was 
a  forger}7-,  it  was  undoubtedly  a  forgery  of  old  standing,  .if  he  could 
not  detect  it. 

But  we  will  go  back  a  step  farther,  and  prove  the  antiquity  of 
the  New  Testament  by  the  testimony  of  another  enemy,  two 
generations  older  than  Celsus.  The  celebrated  heretic,  Marcion, 
lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  when  he  had  the 
best  opportunity  of  discovering  a  forgery  in  the  writings  of  the 


*  Origen  Contra  Celsum,  passim. 


91 


12 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


New  Testament,  if  any  such  existed;  he  was  excommunicated 
by  the  church,  and  being  greatly  enraged  thereat,  had  every  dis¬ 
position  to  say  the  worst  he  could  about  it.  He  traveled  all  the 
way  from  Sinope  on  the  Black  Sea,  to  Rome,  and  through  Gala¬ 
tia,  Bithynia,  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  Italy,  tiie  countries  where 
the  Apostles  preached,  and  the  churches  to  which  they  wrote,  but 
never  found  any  one  to  suggest  the  idea  of  a  forgery  to  him.  lie 
affirmed  that  the  gospel  of  Matthew,  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
those  of  James  and  Peter,  and  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament, 
were  books  only  for  Jews,  and  published  a  new  and  altered 
edition  of  the  gospel  of  Luke  and  ten  epistles  of  Paul,  for  the  use 
of  his  sect.*  We  have  thus  the  most  undoubted  evidence,  even 
the  testimony  of  an  enemy,  that  these  books  were  in  existence, 
and  generally  received  as  apostolical  and  authoritative  by 
Christians,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  or  within 
twenty  years  of  the  last  of  the  Apostles,  and  by  the  churches 
to  which  they  had  preached  and  written. 

The  only  remaining  conceivable  cavil  against  the  genuineness  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  is:  “  That  they  bear  internal  evi¬ 
dence  of  being  collections  of  fragments  written  by  different  persons, 

• — and  are  probably  merely  traditions  committed  to  writing  by 
various  unknown  writers,  and  afterwards  collected  and  issued  to 
the  churches  under  the  names  of  the  Apostles,  for  the  sake  of 
greater  authority."  This  theory  being  received  as  gospel  by 
several  learned  men,  has  furnished  matter  for  lengthy  discussions 
as  to  the  sources  of  the  four  gospels.  Translated  into  English,  it 
amounts  to  this,  that  Brown,  Smith,  White,  and  Jones,  wrote  out  a 
number  of  essays  and  anecdotes,  and  persuaded  the  churches  of 
Ephesus,  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Corinth,  and  the  rest,  to  receive 
them  as  the  writings  of  their  ministers,  who  had  lived  for  years, 
or  were  then  living  among  them  ;  and  on  the  strength  of  that 
notion  of  their  being  the  writings  of  the  Apostles,  to  govern  their 
whole  lives  by  these  essays,  and  lay  down  their  lives  and  peril 
their  souls'  salvation  on  the  truth  of  these  anecdotes.  As  though 
they  could  not  tell  whether  such  documents  were  forgeries  or  not ! 

It  is  almost  incredible  how  ignorant  dreaming  book-worms  are 

O  cj 

of  the  common  business  of  life.  Most  of  my  readers  will  laugh 
at  the  idea  of  a  serious  answer  to  such  a  quibble.  Nevertheless, 


92 


*  Lardner,  vol.  ix,  p.  358. 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


13 


for  tho  sake  of  those  whose  inexperience  may  be  abused  by  the 
authority  of  learned  names,  I  will  show  them  that  the  primitive 
Christians,  supposing  them  able  to  read,  could  know  whether  their 
ministers  did  really  write  the  books  and  letters  which  they  received 
from  them. 

If  you  go  into  the  Citizens’  Bank,  you  will  find  a  large  folio 
volume  lying  on  the  counter,  and  on  looking  at  it  you  will  see  that 
it  is  filled  with  men’s  names  in  their  own  handwriting,  and  that 
no  two  of  them  are  exactly  alike.  Every  person  who  has  any 
business  to  transact  with  the  bank  is  requested  to  write  his  name 
in  the  book;  and:vhcn  his  check  comes  afterward  for  payment,  the 
clerk  can  tell  at  a  glance  if  the  signature  is  the  same  as  that  of 
which  he  has  a  single  specimen.  If  there  has  been  no  opportunity 
for  him  to  become  personally  acquainted  with  the  bank,  as  in  case 
of  a  foreigner  newly  arrived,  he  brings  letters  of  introduction  from 
some  well  known  mutual  friend,  or  is  accompanied  by  some  re¬ 
spectable  citizen,  who  attests  his  identity.  Business  men  have  no 
difficulty  whatever  in  ascertaining  the  genuineness  of  documents. 
It  is  only  when  people  want  to  dispute  Holy  Scripture  that  they 
give  up  common  sense. 

Holy  Scripture  was  known  to  be  the  genuine  writing  of  the 
Apostles,  just  in  the  same  way  as  any  other  writing  was  known  to 
be  genuine,  only  the  churches  who  received  the  writings  of  the 
Apostles  had  ten  thousand  times  better  security  against  forgery 
than  any  bank  in  the  Union.  In  one  of  the  first  letters  Paul 
writes  to  the  churches — the  second  letter  to  the  Thessalonians — -to 
whom  he  had  been  preaching  only  a  few  weeks  before,  sent  from 
Athens,  distant  only  some  two  days’ journey,  full  of  allusions  to 
their  affairs,  commands  how  to  conduct  themselves  in  the  business 
of  their  workshops,  as  well  as  in  the  devotions  of  the  church,  and 
explanations  of  some  misunderstood  parts  of  a  former  letter  sent 
by  the  hand  of  a  mutual  friend — he  formally  gives  them  his  sig¬ 
nature,  for  the  purpose  of  future  reference,  and  comparison  of  any 
document  which  might  purport  to  come  from  him,  with  that 
specimen  of  his  autograph.  He  gives  not  the  name  merely,  but 
his  apostolic  benediction  also,  in  his  own  handwriting:  The  salu¬ 
tation  of  me,  Paid,  with  mine  own  hand,  which  is  the  token  in  every 
epistle,  so  I  write.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  you 
all.  Amen.  It  shows  the  heart  of  an  Apostle  of  Christ ;  but 
what  concern^  the  present  question  is  the  remark,  which  every 

93 


14 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


"business  man  ’will  in  a  moment  appreciate,  how  immensely  the 
addition  of  these  two  lines  adds  to  the  security  against  forgery. 
It  is  a  very  hard  thing  to  forge  a  signature,  but  give  a  business 
man  two  lines  of  any  man’s  writing  besides  that,  and  he  is  per¬ 
fectly  secure  against  imposition. 

The  churches  to  which  the  epistles  were  written,  and  to  which 
the  gospels  were  delivered,  consisted  largely  of  business  men,  of 
merchants  and  traders,  tent  makers  and  coppersmiths,  city  cham¬ 
berlains,  and  officers  of  Caesar’s  household,  and  the  like.  Does 
any  one  think  such  men  could  not  tell  the  handwriting  of  their 
minister,  who  had  lived  among  them  for  years ;  or  that  men  who 
were  risking  their  lives  for  the  instructions  he  wrote  them,  would 
care  less  about  the  genuineness  of  the  documents,  than  you  do 
about  the  genuineness  of  a  ten  dollar  check  ?  I  am  not  as  long  in 
this  city  as  Paul  was  in  Ephesus,  nor  one-fourth  of  the  time  that 
John  lived  there,  yet  I  defy  all  the  advocates  of  the  mythical 
theory  in  Germany,  and  all  their  disciples  here,  to  write  a  myth 
half  as  long  as  this  tract,  and  impose  it  on  the  elders  and  members 
of  my  church  as  iny  writing.  Let  it  only  be  presented  in  manu¬ 
script  to  the  congregation — there  was  no  printing  in  Paul’s  days — 
and  in  five  minutes  a  dozen  members  of  the  church  will  detect  the 
forgery,  even  if  I  should  hold  my  peace,  xlnd  were  I  to  leave  on 
a  mission  to  China  or  India,  and  write  letters  to  the  church,  would 
any  of  these  business  men,  who  have  seen  my  writing,  have  the 
least  hesitation  in  recognizing  it  again  ?  Do  you  think  any  body 
could  forge  a  letter  as  from  me,  and  impose  it  on  them  ?  What 
an  absurdity,  then,  to  suppose  that  any  body  could  write  a  gospel 
or  epistle,  and  just  get  all  the  members  of  a  large  church  to  believe 
that  an  Apostle  wrote  it!  The  first  Christians,  then,  were  abso¬ 
lutely  certain  that  the  documents  which  they  received  as  apostolic, 
were  really  so.  The  Church  of  Home  could  attest  the  epistle  to 
them,  and  the  gospels  of  Mark  and  Luke  written  there.  The 
Church  of  Ephesus  could  attest  the  epistle  to  them,  and  the  gospel, 
and  letters,  and  Revelation  of  John  written  there.  And  so  on  of 
all  the  other  churches  ;  and  these  veritable  autographs  were  long 
preserved.  Says  Tertullian,  who  was  ordained  A.  D.  192  :  “Well, 
if  you  be  willing  to  exercise  your  curiosity  profitably  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  your  salvation,  visit  the  apostolical  churches  in  which  the 
very  chairs  of  the  Apostles  still  preside — in  which  their  authentic 
letters  themselves  are  recited,  (apud  quae  ijpsce  autJienticcc  litercu 
94 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.’ 


15 


eorum  recitantur,*)  sounding  forth  the  voice  and  representing  the 
countenance  of  each  one  of  them.  Is  Achaia  near  you,  you  have 
Corinth.  If  you  are  not  far  from"  Macedonia,  }mu  have  Philippi, 
you  have  Thessalonica.  If  you  can  go  to  Asia,  }'ou  have  Ephesus  ; 
but  if  you  are  near  to  Italy,  you  have  Rome.”*  There  can  not 
be  the  least  doubt  about  the  preservation  of  documents  for  a  far 
longer  time  than  from  Paul  to  Tertullian — one  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  Bible,  the  family  Bible  of  the  Gibsons 
— printed  in  1599 — two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  years  old,  in  perfect 
preservation. 

The  only  difficulty  which  now  remains  is  the  objection,  that  they 
might  have  been  corrupted  by  alterations,  and  interpolations  by 
monks  in  later  times.  We  have  two  securities  against  such  corrup¬ 
tions  in  the  way  these  documents  were  given,  and  the  nature  of  their 
contents.  They  were  sacred  heirlooms,  and  they  were  public  docu¬ 
ments.  Could  you,  or  could  any  man,  have  permission  to  alter  the 
original  copy  of  Washington’s  Farewell  Address?  Would  not  the 
man  who  should  attempt  such  sacriiego  bo  torn  in  a  thousand 
pieces  ?  But  Washington  will  never  be  an  object  of  such  veneration 
as  John,  nor  will  his  Farewell  Address  ever  compare  in  importance 
with  Paul’s  Farewell  Letter  to  the  Philippians,  Besides,  these 
gospels  and  letters  were  public  documents,  containing  the  records 
of  laws,  in  obedience  to  which  men  were  daily  crossing  their 
inclinations,  enduring  the  mockery  of  their  neighbors,  losing  their 
money,  and  endangering  their  lives.  They  contained  the  proofs 
and  promises  of  that  religious  faith  in  God  and  hope  of  heaven,  for 
the  sake  of  which  they  suffered  such  things.  Is  it  credible  that 
they  would  allow  them  to  be  altered  and  corrupted  ?  You  might 
far  more  rationally  talk  of  some  southern  politician  altering  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  or  some  northern  man  altering  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Translated  into  different  lan¬ 
guages — transported  into  Britain,  Germany,  France,  Spain,  Italy, 
Greece,  Turkey,  Carthage,  Egypt,  Parthia,  Persia,  India,  and 
China — committed  to  memory  by  children,  and  quoted  in  the 
writings  of  Christian  authors  of  the  first  three  centuries,  to  such 
an  extent,  that  we  can  gather  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
except  twenty-six  verses,  from  their  writings  —  appealed  to  as 
authority  by  heretics  and  orthodox  in  controvers}^ — and  publicly 


*  Tertullian  JOe  Prescript,  cap.  36. 


95 


16 


WHO  WROTE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


read  in  the  hearing  of  tens  of  hundreds  of  thousands  every  Sab¬ 
bath  day  in  worship — we  are  a  thousand  times  more  certain  that 
the  New  Testament  has  not  been  corrupted,  than  we  are  that  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  is  genuine. 

'On  this  ground  then  we  plant  ourselves.  The  whole  story  of  a 
late  and  gradual  formation  of  the  New  Testament,  or,  in  plain 
English,  of  its  forgery,  stands  out  as  an  unmitigated  falsehood  in 
the  eyes  of  every  man  capable  of  writing  his  own  name.  The 
first  churches  could  not  be  deceived  with  forgeries  for  apostolic 
writings.  Nor  could  they,  if  they  would,  allow  these  writings  to 
be  corrupted.  Be  they  true  or  false,  fact  or  fiction,  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament  are  the  words  of  the  Apostles  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  next  Tract  we  will  inquire  into  the 
truth  of  their  story. 


No.  27. 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


“  For  they  themselves  show  of  us  what  manner  of  entering  in  we 
had  unto  you,  and  how  ye  turned  to  God  from  idols,  to  serve 
the  living  and  true  God;  and  to  wait  for  his  Son  from  heaven, 
whom  he  raised  from  the  dead,  even  Jesus,  who  delivered  us 
from  the  wrath  to  come” — I.  Thess.  i :  9,  10. 

In  the  last  Tract  we  ascertained  that  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
were  not  forgeries  of  some  nameless  monks  of  the  third  century — . 
that  the  shopkeepers,  silversmiths,  tent-makers,  coppersmiths,  tan¬ 
ners,  physicians,  senators,  town  councillors,  officers  of  customs, 
city  treasurers,  and  nobles  of  Ceesar’s  household,  in  Rome,  Antioch, 
Ephesus,  Corinth,  Athens,  and  Alexandria,  could  no  more  be  im¬ 
posed  upon  in  the  matter  of  documents,  attested  by  the  well  known 
signatures  of  their  beloved  ministers,  than  you  could  by  letters  or 
sermons  purporting  to  come  from  your  own  pastor — and  that  the 
documents  which  they  believed  to  contain  the  directory  of  their 
lives,  and  the  charter  of  that  salvation  which  they  valued  more 
than  their  lives — which  they  read  in  their  churches,  recited  at  their 
tables,  quoted  in  their  writings,  appealed  to  in  their  controversies, 
translated  into  many  languages,  and  dispersed  into  every  part  of 
the  known  world,  they  neither  would  nor  could  corrupt  or  falsify. 

The  genuineness  of  the  copies  of  the  New  Testament  which  we 
now  possess,  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  comparison  of  over  two 
thousand  manuscripts,  from  all  parts  of  the  world;  scrutinized 
during  a  period  of  nearly  a  hundred  years,  by  the  most  critical 
scholars,  so  accurately  that  the  variations  of  such  things  as  would 
in  English  correspond  to  the  crossing  of  a  t,  or  the  dotting  of  an  i, 
have  been  carefully  enumerated;  yet  the  result  of  the  whole  of 
this  searching  scrutiny  has  been  merely  the  suggestion  of  thirteen, 
or,  as  later  critics  say,  nine  unimportant  alterations  in  the  received 
text,  of  the  seven  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty-nine  verses  of 
the  New  Testament.  This  is  a  fact  utterly  unexampled  in  the 
history  of  manuscripts.  There  are  but  six  manuscripts  of  the 
Comedies  of  Terence,  and  these  have  not  been  copied  once  for 
every  thousand  times  the  New  Testament  has  been  transcribed, 
yet  there  are  thirty  thousand  variations  found  in  these  six  manu- 
ecripts,  or  an  average  of  five  thousand  for  each,  and  many  of  them 
7  97 


O 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


seriously  affect  the  sense.  The  average  number  of  variations  in 
the  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament,  examined,  is  not  quite 
thirty  for  each,  including  all  the  trivialities  already  noticed. 

We  are,  then,  by  the  special  providence  of  God,  now  as  un¬ 
doubtedly  in  possession  of  genuine  copies  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  written  by  the  companions  of  Jesus,  as  we  are  of  genuine 
copies  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Independence.  These  are  historic  documents,  of  well  es¬ 
tablished  genuineness  and  antiquity,  which  we  now  proceed  to 
examine  as  to  their  truthfulness. 

There  is  no  history  so  trustworthy  as  that  prepared  by  contem¬ 
porary  writers,  especially  by  those  who  have  themselves  been  ac¬ 
tively  engaged  in  the  events  which  they  relate.  Such  history 
never  loses  its  interest,  nor  does  the  lapse  of  ages,  in  the  least  de¬ 
gree,  impair  its  credibility.  While  the  documents  can  be  pre¬ 
served,  Xenophon’s  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand,  Caesar’s  Gallic 
War,  and  the  Despatches  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  will  be  as 
trustworthy  as  on  the  day  they  -were  written.  Yet  some  suspicion 
may  arise  in  our  minds,  that  these  commanders  and  historians 
might  keep  back  some  important  events  which  would  have  dimmed 
their  reputation  with  posterity,  or  have  colored  those  they  have  re¬ 
lated  so  as  to  add  to  their  fame.  Of  the  great  facts  related  in 
memoirs  addressed  to  their  companions  in  arms,  able  at  a  glance 
to  detect  a  falsehood,  we  never  entertain  the  least  suspicion. 

There  is,  however,  another  kind  of  contemporary  history  not  so 
connected  and  regular  as  the  formal  diary  or  journal,  which  does 
not  oven  propose  to  relate  history  at  all,  but  is  for  that  very  reason 
entirely  removed  from  the  suspicion  of  giving  a  coloring  to  it; 
which,  at  the  cost  of  a  little  patience  and  industry,  gives  us  the 
most  convincing  confirmations  of  the  truth,  or  exposures  of  the 
mistakes  of  historians,  by  the  undesigned  and  incidental  way  in 
which  the  use  of  a  name,  a  date,  a  proverb,  a  jest,  an  expletive,  a 
quotation,  an  allusion,  flashes  conviction  upon  the  reader’s  mind.  I 
mean  contemporary  correspondence.  If  we  have  the  private  letters 
of  celebrated  men  laid  before  us,  we  are  enabled  to  look  right  into 
them,  and  see  their  true  characters.  Thus  Macaulay  exhibits  to 
the  world  the  proud,  lying,  stupid  tyrant  James,  displayed  in  his 
own  letters.  Thus  Voltaire  records  himself  an  adulterer,  and  begs 
his  friend,  D’Alembert,  to  lie  for  him ;  his  friend  replies  that  he 
has  done  so.  Thus  the  correspondence  of  the  great  American 
98 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


herald  of  the  Age  of  Reason  exhibits  him  drinking  a  quart  of 
brandy  daily  at  his  friend's  expense,  and  refusing  to  pay  his  bill 
for  boarding.  In  the  unguarded  freedom  of  confidential  corres¬ 
pondence,  the  veil  is  taken  from  the  heart.  We  see  men  as  they 
are.  The  true  man  stands  out  in  his  native  dignity,  and  the  gild¬ 
ing  is  rubbed  off  the  hypocrite.  Give  the  world  their  letters,  and 
let  the  grave  silence  the  plaudits  and  the  clamors  which  deafened 
the  generation  among  whom  the}7  lived,  and  no  man  will  hesitate 
whether  or  not  to  pronounce  Ilume  a  sensualist,  or  Washington  the 
noblest  work  of  God — an  honest  man. 

If  we  add  another  test  of  truthfulness,  by  increasing  the  number 
of  the  witnesses,  comparing  a  number  of  letters  referring  to  the 
same  events,  written  by  persons  of  various  degrees  of  education, 
and  of  different  occupations  and  ranks  of  life,  resident  in  different 
countries,  acting  independently  of  each  other,  and  find  them  all 
agree  in  their  allusions  to,  or  direct  mention  of,  some  central  facts 
concerning  which  they  are  all  interested,  no  one  can  rightfully 
doubt  that  this  undesigned  agreement  declares  the  truth.  But  if, 
in  addition  to  all  these  undesigned  coincidences,  we  happen  upon 
the  correspondence  of  persons  whose  interests  and  passions  were 
diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  our  correspondents,  and  find  that, 
when  they  have  occasion  to  refer  to  them,  they  also  confirm  the 
great  facts  already  ascertained,  then  our  belief  becomes  conviction 
which  cannot  be  overturned  by  any  sophistry,  that  these  things 
did  occur.  If  Whig  and  Tory  agree  in  relating  the  facts  of  James's 
flight  and  William’s  accession,  if  the  letters  of  his  Jacobite  friends 
and  those  of  the  French  ambassador  confirm  the  statements  of  the 
English  Historian,  and  if  we  are  put  in  possession  of  the  letters 
'which  James  himself  wrote  from  France  and  Ireland  to  his  friends 
in  England,  does  any  man  in  his  common  sense  doubt  that  the  Re¬ 
volution  of  1G88  did  actually  occur  ? 

When  in  addition  to  all  this  concentration  and  convergence  of 
documentary  testimony,  one  finds  that  the  matters  related,  being 
of  public  concern,  and  the  changes  effected  for  the  public  weal, 
the  people  of  Great  Britain  have  ever  since  observed,  and  do 
to  this  day  celebrate,  by  religious  worship  and  public  rejoicings, 
the  anniversaries  of  the  principal  events  of  that  Revolution,  and 
that  he  himself  has  been  present,  and  has  heard  the  thanks¬ 
givings,  and  witnessed  the  rejoicings  on  those  anniversaries, 
the  facts  of  the  history  come  out  from  the  domains  of  learned 

99 


4 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


curiosity,  and  take  their  stand  on  the  market  place  of  the  busy 
■world’s  engagements.  We  become  at  once  conscious  that  this  is  a 
practical  question — a  great  fact  which  concerns  us — that  the  whole 
of  the  law  and  government  of  a  vast  empire  has  felt  its  impress — • 
that  our  ancestors  and  ourselves  have  been  moulded  under  its  in¬ 
fluence,  and  that  the  Protestant  religion  of  Europe  and  America, 
under  whose  guardianship  we  have  grown  to  a  prominent  place- 
among  the  people  of  earth,  and  may  arrive  at  a  better  prominence 
among  the  nations  of  the  saved,  has  been  preserved,  under  God, 
by  that  Revolution.  We  could  scarcely  know  whether  most  to 
pity  or  contemn  the  man  who  should  labor  to  persuade  us  that 
such  a  Revolution  had  never  occurred,  or  that  the  facts  had  been 
essentially  misrepresented. 

Now  it  is  precisely  on  the  same  kind  of  evidence  as  that  which 
we  have  for  these  indisputable  facts  of  the  English  Revolution, 
that  we  believe  the  great  facts  of  the  Christian  Revolution.  We 
have  contemporary  histories,  formal  and  informal ;  letters,  public 
and  private,  from  the  principal  agents  in  it,  and  opposers  of  it, 
dispersed  from  Babylon  to  Rome,  and  addressed  to  Greeks, 
Romans,  Jews,  and  Asiatics;  written  by  physicians,  fishermen, 
proconsuls,  emperors,  and  apostles.  And  these  great  facts  stand 
out  more  prominently  on  the  theater  of  the  world’s  business  as 
effecting  changes  on  our  laws  and  lives,  and  their  introduction  as 
authenticated  by  public  commemorations,  more  solemn  and  more 
numerous  than  those  resulting  from  the  English  or  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Revolution.  Our  main  difficulty  lies  in  selecting,  from  the 
vast  mass  of  materials,  a  portion  sufficiently  distinct  and  manage¬ 
able  to  be  handled  in  a  tract  of  this  size. 

We  shall  be  guided  by  the  motto  already  announced  as  the  rule 
of  inductive  research.  One  thing  at  a  time;  and  the  nearest  first. 
The  Epistles  being  nearer  our  own  times  than  the  Gospels,  claim 
our  first  notice,  and  first  among  these,  those  which  stand  latest  on 
the  page  of  sacred  history,  the  ten  letters  of  John;  two  from 
Peter  to  the  Christians  of  Asia;  and  those  which  Paul,  in  chains 
for  the  gospel,  dictated  from  imperial  Rome. 

From  the  abundant  notices  of  the  early  Christians  by  historians 
and  philosophers,  satirists  and  comedians,  martyrs  and  magis¬ 
trates,  Jewish,  Christian,  and  heathen,  I  shall  select  only  two  for 
comparison  with  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles ;  and  both  those 
heathen — the  celebrated  letter  of  Pliny  to  Trajan,  and  the  well 
100 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


5 


established  history  of  Tacitus — and  both  utterly  undeniable,  and 
admitted  by  the  most  sceptical  to  be  beyond  suspicion.  Not  that  I 
suppose  that  the  testimony  of  men  who  did  not  take  the  trouble  of 
making  any  inquiry  into  the  reality  of  the  facts  of  the  Christian 
religion,  is  more  accurate  than  that  of  those  whose  lives  were  de¬ 
voted  to  its  study ;  or  that  we  have  any  just  reason  to  attach  as 
much  weight  to  the  assertions  of  persons,  who,  by  their  own  show¬ 
ing,  tortured  and  murdered  men  and  women  convicted  of  no  crime 
but  that  of  bearing  the  name  of  Christ,  as  to  those  of  these  mar¬ 
tyrs,  whose  characters  they  acknowledged  to  be  blameless,  and 
who  sealed  their  testimony  with  the  last  and  highest  attestation  of 
sincerity — their  blood.  Considered  merely  as  a  historian,  whether, 
as  regards  means  of  knowledge,  or  tests  of  truthfulness,  by  every 
unprejudiced  mind,  Peter  will  always  be  preferred  to  Pliny. 
But  because  the  world  will  ever  love  its  own,  and  hate  the  dis¬ 
ciples  of  the  Lord,  there  will  always  be  a  large  class  to  whom  the 
History  of  Tacitus  will  seem  more  veritable  than  that  of  Luke, 
and  the  Letters  of  Pliny  more  reliable  than  those  of  Peter.  For 
their  sakes  we  avail  ourselves  of  that  most  convincing  of  all 
attestations — the  testimony  of  an  enemy.  What  friends  and  foes 
unite  in  attesting  must  be  accepted  as  true. 

The  facts  which  we  shall  thus  establish  are  not,  in  the  first 
instance,  those  called  miraculous.  We  are  now  ascertaining  the 
general  character,  for  truthfulness,  of  our  letter  writers  and  his¬ 
torians.  If  we  find  that  their  general  historic  narrative  is  con¬ 
tradicted  by  that  of  other  credible  historians,  then  we  suspect 
their  story.  But  if  we  find  that,  in  all  essential  matters  of  public 
notoriety,  they  are  supported  by  the  concux-rent  testimony  of  their 
foes,  and  that  the  narrative  of  the  miracles  they  l-elate,  bears 
the  seals  of  thousands  who  from  foes  became  friends,  from  con¬ 
viction  of  its  truth,  then  we  receive  their  witness  as  true.  Even 
in  Paul’s  day,  heathen  Greek  writers  bore  testimony  to  the  Apos¬ 
tles,  what  manner  of  entering  in  they  had  unto  the  converts  of 
Thessalonica ;  and  how  they  turned  to  God  from  idols,  to  serve 
the  living  and  true  God,  and  to  wait  for  his  Son  from  Heaven, 
whom  he  raised  from  the  dead — even  Jesus,  who  delivered  us  fi*om 
the  wrath  to  come.  Pliny  wrote  forty  years  later. 

Pliny,  the  younger,  was  born  A.  D.  01 — was  Praetor  under  Do- 
mitian — consul  in  the  third  year  of  Trajan,  A.  I).  100 — was  ex- 

101 


6 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


ceedingly  desirous  to  add  to  his  other  honors  that  of  the  priest¬ 
hood;  was  accordingly  consecrated  an  augur,  and  built  temples, 
bought  images,  and  consecrated  them  on  his  estates;  was,  in  A.  D. 
106,  appointed  Governor  of  the  Roman  Provinces  of  Pontus  and 
Bithvnia* — a  vast  tract  of  Asia  Minor,  Ivina*  along  the  shores  of 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  Propontis ;  and  including  the  Province 
anciently  called  Mysia,  in  which  were  situated  Pergamos  and 
atira,  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of.  Sardis  and  Phila¬ 
delphia.  Pliny  reached  his  Province  by  the  usual  route,  the 
port  of  Ephesus;  where  John  had  lived  for  many  years,  and  in¬ 
dited  his  letters  A.  I).,  96.  The  letters  of  Peter  to  the  strangers 
scattered  through  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia, 
bring  us  to  the  same  mountainous  region,  eight  hundred  miles  dis¬ 
tant  from  Judea;  whence,  in  earlier  days,  our  savage  ancestors  re¬ 
ceived  those  Phoenician  priests  of  Baal,  whose  round  towers  mark 
the  coasts  of  Ireland  nearest  to  the  setting  sun;  and  whence,  about 
the  period  under  consideration,  came  the  heralds  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  who  brought  the  “  Leabhar  jEoin ;;  +  which  tells 
their  children  of  him  in  whom  is  the  life  and  the  light  of  meu. 
Natives  of  these  countries  had  been  in  Jerusalem  during  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus,  and,  though  only  strangers,  had  witnessed 
the  darkness,  and  the  earthquake,  and  the  rumors  of  what  had 
come  to  pass  in  those  days ;  and  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  had 
mingled  with  the  curious  crowd  around  the  Apostles,  and  heard 
them  speak,  in  their  own  mother  tongues,  of  the  wonderful  works 
of  God.  The  remainder  of  the  story  of  their  conversion  we  gather 
from  the  letters  of  Peter,  John,  and  Pliny. 

“Pliny,  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  wislieth  health  and  happiness 

“It  is  my  constant  custom,  Sire,  to  refer  myself  to  you  in  all 
matters  concerning  which  I  have  any  doubt.  For  who  can  better  di¬ 
rect  me  when  1  hesitate,  or  instruct  me  when  I  am  ignorant? 

“I  have  never  been  present  at  any  trials  of  Christians,  so  that  I 
know  not  well  what  is  the  subject  matter  of  punishment,  or  of  in¬ 
quiry,  or  what  strictures  ought  to  be  used  in  either.  Nor  have  I  been 
a  little  perplexed  to  determine  whether  any  difference  ought  to  be 
made  upon  account  of  age,  or  whether  the  young  and  tender,  and  the 
full  grown  and  robust,  ought  to  be  treated  all  alike  ;  whether  repent¬ 
ance  should  entitle  to  pardon,  or  whether  all  who  have  once  been 


102 


*  Lardner,  vii.  p.  13,  et  seq. 
f  Pronounced  Laar  Owen — John’s  Book, 
f  Lib.  x.  Lp.  07,  Lardner,  vii.  22. 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


7 


'Christians  ought  to  be  punished,  though  they  are  nov  no  longer  so, 
■whether  the  name  Itself,  although  no  crimes  be  detected,  or  crimes 
only  belonging  to  the  name  ought  to  be  punished. 

“In  the  mean  time,  I  have  taken  this  course  with  all  who  have 
been  brought  before  me,  and  have  been  accused  as  Christians.  I  have 
put  the  question  to  them,  whether  they  were  Christians.  Upon 
their  confessing  to  me  that  they  were,  I  repeated  the  question  a  se¬ 
cond  and  a  third  time,  threatening  also  to  punish  them  with  death. 
Such  as  still  persisted,  I  ordered  away  to^c  punished  ;  for  it  was  no 
doubt  with  me,  whatever  might  be  the  nature  of  their  opinion,  that 
contumacy  and  inflexible  obstinacy  ought  to  be  punished.  There 
were  others  of  the  same  infatuation,  whom,  because  they  are  Roman 
citizens,  I  have  noted  down,  to  be  sent  to  the  city. 

“In  a  short  time  the  crime  spreading  itself,  even  whilst  under  per¬ 
secution,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  divers  sorts  of  people  came  in  my 
way.  An  information  was  presented  to  me,  without  mentioning  the 
author,  containing  the  names  of  many  persons,  who,  upon  examina¬ 
tion,  denied  that  they  were  Christians,  or  had  even  been  so  ;  who  re¬ 
peated  after  me  an  invocation  of  the  gods,  and  with  wine  and  frank¬ 
incense  made  supplication  to  your  image,  which,  for  that  purpose,  I 
have  caused  to  be  brought  and  set  before  them,  together  with  the 
statues  of  the  deities.  Moreover,  they  reviled  the  name  of  Christ. 
JSTone  of  which  things,  as  is  said,  they  who  are  really  Christians  can 
by  any  means  be  compelled  to  do.  These,  therefore,  I  thought  proper 
to  discharge. 

“  Others  were  named  by  an  informer,  who  at  first  confessed  them¬ 
selves  Christians,  and  afterwards  denied  it.  The  rest  said  they  had 
been  Christians,  but  had  left  them:  some  three  years  ago,  some 
longer,  and  one  or  more  above  twenty  years.  They  all  worshiped 
your  image,  and  the  statues  of  the  gods  ;  these  also  reviled  Christ. 
They  affirmed  that  the  whole  of  their  fault  or  error  lay  in  this  :  that 
they  were  wont  to  meet  together,  on  a  stated  day,  before  it  was  light, 
and  sing  among  themselves  alternately,  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  a  God, 
and  bind  themselves  by  a  sacrament,  not  to  the  commission  of  any 
wickedness,  but  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft,  or  robbery,  or  adultery  ; 
never  to  falsify  their  word,  nor  to  deny  a  pledge  committed  to  them, 
when  called  upon  to  return  it.  When  these  things  were  performed, 
it  was  their  custom  to  separate,  and  then  to  come  together  again  to  a 
meal,  which  they  ate  in  common,  without  any  disorder  ;  but  this  they 
had  forborne  since  the  publication  of  my  edict,  by  which,  according 
to  your  command,  I  prohibited  assemblies.  After  receiving  this  ac¬ 
count,  I  judged  it  the  more  necessary  to  examine  two  maid  servants 
which  were  called  ministers,  by  torture.  But  I  have  discovered  no 
thing  besides  a  bad  and  excessive  superstition. 

“Suspending,  therefore,  all  judicial  proceedings,  I  have  recourse  to 
you  for  advice;  for  it  has  appeared  to  me  a  matter  highly  deserving 
consideration,  especially  upon  account  of  the  great  number  of  per¬ 
sons  who  are  in  danger  of  suffering.  For  many  of  all  ages,  and  every 
rank,  of  both  sexes  likewise,  are  accused,  and  will  be  accused.  Nor 
has  the  contagion  of  this  superstition  seized  cities  only,  but  the  lessei 
towns  also,  and  the  open  country.  Nevertheless,  it  seems  to  mo 
that  it  may  be  restrained  and  arrested.  It  is  certain  that  the  temples, 

.103 


8 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


■which  -were  almost  forsaken,  begin  to  be  frequented.  And  the  sacred 
solemnities,  after  a  long  intermission,  are  revived.  Victims,  likewise, 
are  every  where  bought  up,  whereas,  for  some  time,  there  were  few 
purchasers.  Whence,  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  what  numbers  of  men 
might  be  reclaimed,  if  pardon  were  granted  to  those  who  shall 
repent  ?” 

“Trajan  to  Pliny,  wisheth  health  and  happiness  :* 

“You  have  taken  the  right  cours^,  my  Pliny,  in  your  proceedings 
with  those  who  have  been  brought  before  you  as  Christians  ;  for  it  is 
impossible  to  establish  any  one  rule  that  shall  hold  universally. 
They  are  not  to  be  sought  after.  If  any  are  brought  before  you,  and 
are  convicted,  they  ought  to  be  punished.  However,  he  that  denies 
his  being  a  Christian,  and  makes  it  evident  in  fact,  that  is,  by  sup- 

fdicating  to  our  gods,  though  he  be  suspected  to  have  been  so  former- 
y,  let  him  be  pardoned  upon  repentance.  But  in  no  case,  of  any 
crime  whatever,  may  a  bill  of  information  be  received  without  being 
signed  by  him  who  presents  it,  for  that  would  be  a  dangerous  prece¬ 
dent,  and  unworthy  of  my  government.” 

I  must  request  my  reader  now  to  procure  a  New  Testament,  and 
read,  at  one  reading,  the  First  General  Epistle  of  Peter,  the  First 
General  Epistle  of  John,  and  his  Seven  Epistles  to  the  Churches  in 
Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Pergamus,  Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and  La- 
odicea — only  about  as  much  matter  as  four  pages  of  Harper’s  Maga¬ 
zine,  or  half  a  page  of  the  Commercial — that  he  may  be  able  to  do 
the  same  justice  to  the  Apostles  as  to  the  Governor.  lie  will  thus 
be  able  to  see  the  force  of  the  various  allusions  to  the  numbers, 
doctrines,  morals,  persecutions,  and  perseverance  of  the  Christians, 
contained  in  those  letters ;  the  object  which  I  have  in  view  being 
to  establish  their  authenticity  by  proving  the  truthfulness  of  their 
allusions  to  these  things.  If  you  think  this  too  much  trouble, 
please  lay  down  the  tract,  and  dismiss  the  consideration  of  religion 
from  your  thoughts.  If  the  letters  of  the  Apostles  are  not  worth 
a  careful  reading,  it  is  of  no  consequence  whether  they  are  true  or 
false. 

1.  These  letters  take  for  granted,  that  the  fact  of  the  existence  of 
large  numbers  of  Christians,  organized  into  churches,  and  meeting 
regularly  for  religious  worship,  at  the  close  of  the  first  century,  is 
a  matter  of  public  notoriety  to  the  world.  Here,  in  countries 
eight  hundred  miles  distant  from  its  birth-place,  in  the  lifetime  of 
those  who  had  seen  its  founder  crucified,  we  find  Christians  scat¬ 
tered  over  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithyn’a — 


101 


*  Lib.  x.  Ep.  98,  Lardncr,  vii.  24. 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


9 


churches  in  seven  provincial  cities — the  sect  well  known  to  Pliny, 
before  he  left  Italy,  as  a  proscribed  and  persecuted  religion,  the 
professors  of  which  were  customarily  brought  before  courts  for 
trial  and  punishment — though  he  had  not  himself  been  present  at 
such  trials — and  now  so  numerous  in  his  provinces,  that  a  great 
number  of  persons,  of  both  sexes,  young  and  old,  of  all  ranks, 
natives  and  Roman  citizens,  professed  Christianity.  Others,  in¬ 
fluenced  by  their  example  and  instruction,  renounced  idolatry  ; 
victims  were  not  led  to  sacrifice ;  the  sacred  rites  of  the  gods  were 
suspended,  and  their  temples  forsaken.  The  existence,  then,  of 
churches  of  Christ,  consisting  of  vast  numbers  of  converted 
heathens,  at  the  close  of  the  first  century,  is  in  no  wise  mythologi¬ 
cal  or  dubious.  It  is  an  established  historical  fact.  The  Epistles 
of  the  Apostles  stand  confirmed  by  the  Epistles  of  the  Governor 
and  the  Emperor. 

2.  The  second  great  fact  presented  in  the  Epistles,  and  confirm¬ 
ed  by  the  letters  of  the  Governor  and  the  Emperor,  is,  that  the 
worship  of  the  Christian  church  then,  was  essentially  the  same 
which  it  is  now.  We  find  these  Christians  of  the  first  century 
commemorating  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  render¬ 
ing  divine  honors  to  him,  the  “stated  day”  on  which  they  assem¬ 
bled  for  worship,  and  “common  meal,”  are  as  plain  a  description 
of  the  “disciples  coming  together  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
to  break  bread,”  as  a  heathen  could  give  in  few  words.  Their 
terms  of  communion  too,  to  which  they  pledged  their  members  by 
a  sacrament,  “not  to  be  guilty  of  theft,  robbery,  or  adultery;  never 
to  falsify  their  word,  or  deny  a  pledge  committed  to  them,”  find 
their  counterpart  in  every  well  regulated  church  at  this  day. 

The  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  then,  are  not  the  “gradual 
accretions  of  centuries,”  nor  is  the  “  redemptive  idea,  as  attaching 
to  Christ,  a  dogma  of  the  post-Augustine  period.”  The  churches  of 
the  first  century  commemorated  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  as  that  of  a  divine  person,  “  singing  the  hymn  to  him  as  a 
God,”  which  their  descendants  sing  at  this  day  around  his  table: 

“Forever  and  forever  is,  0  God,  thy  throne  of  might, 

The  scepter  of  thy  Kingdom  is  a  scepter  that  is  right, 

Thou  lovest  right,  and  hatest  ill;  for  God,  thy  God,  Most  High, 
Above  thy  fellows  hath  with  th’  oil  of  joy  anointed  thee.” 

And  the  question  will  force  itself  upon  our  minds,  and  cannot  be 
evaded,  how  did  these  apostles  persuade  such  multitudes  of 

105 


10 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


heathens  to  believe  their  repeated  assertions  of  the  death,  resur¬ 
rection,  and  glory  of  Jesus.  In  the  space  of  three  octavo  pages, 
Peter  refers  to  these  facts  eighteen  times.  John,  in  like  manner, 
repeatedly  affirms  them.  The  Christian  religion  consists  in  the  be¬ 
lief  of  these  facts,  and  a  life  corresponding  to  them.  Now,  how 
did  the  apostles  persuade  such  multitudes  of  heathens  to  believe 
a  report  so  wonderful,  profess  a  religion  so  novel,  renounce  the 
gods  they  had  worshiped  from  their  childhood,  and  all  the  cere¬ 
monies  of  an  attractive,  sensual  religion;  “temples  of  splendid 
architecture,  statues  of  exquisite  sculpture,  priests  and  victims 
superbly  adorned,  attendant  beauteous  youth  of  both  sexes,  per¬ 
forming  all  the  sacred  rites  with  gracefulness  ;  religious  dances, 
illuminations,  concerts  of  the  sweetest  music,  perfumes  of  the 
rarest  fragrance, ”  and  other  more  licentious  enjoyments,  insepar¬ 
able  from  heathen  worship.  How  did  they  persuade  them  to  ex¬ 
change  all  this  for  the  assembly  before  daybreak,  the  frugal  com¬ 
mon  meal,  the  psalm  to  Christ,  and  the  commemoration  of  the 
death  of  a  crucified  malefactor  ?  If  we  add,  that  they  commemo¬ 
rated  his  resurrection,  by  observing  the  Lord’s  day,  the  question 
still  comes  up,  How  did  they  come  to  believe  that  he  was  risen 
from  the  dead?  Could  a  few  despised  strangers,  or  a  few  citizens 
if  you  will,  persuade  such  a  community,  purely  by  natural  means, 
to  believe  such  a  report,  to  care  whether  the  Syrian  Jew  died  or 
rose,  or  to  commemorate  weekly,  by  a  solemn  religious  service, 
either  his  death  or  resurrection  ?  It  is  evident  they  believed  what 
they  commemorated.  How  did  they  come  to  do  so  ? 

But  whether  we  can  answer  the  question  or  not,  the  fact  stands 
out  as  indisputable,  that  not  merely  the  writers  of  the  Epistles 
and  Gospels,  and  a  few  enthusiasts,  but  an  immense  multitude  of 
ail  ages,  of  both  sexes,  and  of  every  rank — the  whole  membership 
of  the  primitive  churches — did  believe  in  the  death,  resurrection, 
and  glory  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  did  render  to  him  divine  wor¬ 
ship.  This  second  great  fact  affirmed  in  the  Epistles,  stands  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  testimony  of  the  heathen  Governor,  and  of  the 
Roman  Emperor. 

3.  A  mere  theory  of  a  new  religion,  unconnected  with  practice, 
may  be  easily  received  by  those  who  care  little  about  any,  so  long 
as  it  brings  no  suffering  or  inconvenience.  But  the  religion  of 
these  Christians  was,  as  yon  see,  a  practical  religion.  If  their 
new  worship  required  a  great  departure  from  the  worship  of  their 
106 


IS  T*HE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE.’ 


11 


childhood,  their  Christian  morals  required  a  still  greater  departure 
from  their  former  mode  of  life.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  the 
moral  codes  of  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristides,  who  taught  that 
lying,  thieving,  adulter}7,  and  murder  were  lawful ;  *  nor  how 
much  worse  than  the  theory  of  the  best  of  the  heathen,  were  the 
lives  of  the  worst;  nor  how  unpopular  to  persons  so  educated 
would  be  such  teaching  as  this — “Forasmuch,  then,  as  Christ  hath 
suffered  for  us  in  the  flesh,  arm  yourselves  also  with  the  same 
mind ;  for  he  that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin : 
that  he  no  longer  should  live  the  rest  of  his  time  in  the  flesh  to  the 
lusts  of  men,  but  to  the  will  of  God.  For  the  time  past  of  our  life 
may  suffice  us  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles,  when  we 
walked  in  lasciviousness,  lusts,  excess  of  wine,  revelings,  banquet- 
ings,  and  abominable  idolatries  ;  wherein  they  think  it  strange 
that  ye  run  not  with  them  to  the  same  excess  of  riot ;  speaking 
evil  of  you,  who  shsfll  give  account  to  him  that  is  ready  to  judge 
the  living  and  the  dead.”  “Lay  aside  all  malice,  and  guile,  and 
hypocrisies,  and  envies,  and  all  evil  speakings.”  “Whosoever 
abideth  in  Christ  sinneth  not.  Whosoever  sinneth  hath  not  seen 
him,  neither  known  him.  Little  children,  let  no  man  deceive  you. 
He  that  doeth  righteousness  is  righteous,  even  as  he  is  righteous, 
lie  that  committeth  sin  is  of  the  devil.”  So  sharp,  and  stern,  and 
strictly  virtuous,  is  apostolic  religion,  as  displayed  in  these  letters. 
Is  it  possible  then  that  these  converted  heathens  did  really  even 
approach  this  standard  of  morality  ?  Hid  this  gospel  of  Christ 
actually  produce  any  such  reformation  of  their  lives? 

You  have  the  testimony  of  apostates,  eager  to  save  their  lives  by 
giving  such  information  as  they  knew  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
persecutor ;  you  have  the  testimony  of  the  two  aged  deaconesses, 
under  torture ;  you  have  the  unwilling,  but  yet  express,  testimony 
of  their  torturer  and  murderer,  that  all  his  cruel  ingenuity  could 
discover  nothing  worse  than  an  excessive  superstition  and  cul¬ 
pable  obstinacy.  What,  then,  does  this  philosophic  inspector  of 
entrails,  and  adorer  of  idols,  call  an  excessive  superstition  and 
culpable  obstinacy?  Why,  they  bound  themselves  by  the  most 
jolemn  religions  services,  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft,  robbery, 
or  adultery;  not  to  falsify  their  word,  nor  deny  a  pledge  com¬ 
mitted  to  them  ;  and  when  som£  senseless  blocks  of  brass  were 


♦See  Tract  No.  25. 


107 


12 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


carried  on  men’s  shoulders,  into  the  court-house,  to  represent  a 
mortal  man,  they  would  not  adore  them,  nor  pray  to  them — • 
no,  not  though  this  philosopher  compiled  the  liturgy,  and  set 
the  example.  For  this  refusal,  and  this  alone,  he  ordered  them 
away  to  death.  Doubtless  they  heard,  in  their  hearts,  the  well- 
known  words,  “Let  none  of  you  suffer  as  a  murderer,  or  as  a  thief, 
or  as  an  evil  doer,  or  as  a  busy  body  in  other  men’s  matters.  But 
if  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him  not  be  ashamed,  but  let 
him  glorify  God  on  this  behalf.” 

The  morality  of  the  Epistles,  then,  was  not  merely  a  fine  theory, 
but  an  actual  rule  of  life.  The  moral  codes  of  the  apostles  were 
received  as  actually  binding  on  the  members  of  the  churches  of 
the  first  century.  In  this  all-important  matter  of  the  rule  of  a 
good  life — the  fruits  by  which  the  tree  is  known — the  integrity, 
authority,  and  success  of  the  Apostles,  in  turning  licentious 
heathens  into  moral  Christians,  is  authenticated  by  the  unwilling 
testimony  of  their  persecutors.  The  Epistles  of  the  Apostles 
stand  confirmed  as  to  their  ethics,  by  the  letters  of  Trajan  and 
Pliny. 

4.  The  only  other  fact  to  which  I  call  your  attention,  from 
among  the  multitude  alluded  to  in  these  letters,  is  the  cost  at 
which  these  converts  from  heathenism  embraced  this  new  religion. 
Every  one  who  renounced  heathenism,  and  professed  the  name  of 
Christ,  knew  very  well  that  he  must  suffer  for  it.  “Beloved, 
think  it  not  strange  concerning  the  fiery  trial  which  is  to  try  you, 
as  though  some  strange  thing  happened  unto  you,  but  rejoice,  in¬ 
asmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ’s  sufferings,  that  when  his 
glory  shall  be  revealed,  ye  may  be  glad  with  exceeding  joy this 
was  the  welcome  of  the  Bithynian  convert  into  the  Church  of 
Christ.  Persecution  by  fire  and  sword  was  then  the  common  lot 
of  the  church.  “  I  have  never  been  present  at  any  trials  of  the 
Christians,”  says  the  Governor.  Such  trials  were  well  known  to 
him  it  seems.  He  was  not  sure  whether  he  should  murder  all  who 
ever  had  borne  the  name  of  Christ,  or  only  those  who  proved 
themselves  to  be  really  his  disciples,  by  refusing  to  revile  him, 
and  return  to  idolatry ;  and  the  merciful  Emperor  commands  him 
to  spare  the  apostates.  Above  twenty  years  before — in  A.  D. 
86 — there  were  apostates  from  the  persecuted  religion.  In  A.  D. 
90,  John  had  written,  “they  went  out  from  us,  that  it  might  be 
made  manifest  they  were  not  of  us;  for  if  they  had  been  of  us, 
108 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


13 


they  would  no  doubt  have  continued  with  us;  but  they  went  out 
that  it  might  be  made  manifest  that  they  were  not  all  of  us.”  So 
it  seems  Pliny  thought :  “They  all  worshipped  your  image,  and 
other  statues  of  the  gods ;  these  also  reviled  Christ.  None  of 
which  things,  as  is  said,  they  who  are  really  Christians  can  by 
any  means  be  compelled  to  do.”  What  these  means  Avere  he  tells 
us:  “  I  put  the  question  to  them,  whether  they  were  Christians. 
Upon  their  confessing  to  me  that  they  were,  I  repeated  the  ques¬ 
tion  a  second  and  a  third  time,  threatening,  also,  to  punish  them 
with  death.  Such  as  still  persisted,  I  ordered  away  to  be  punish¬ 
ed.”  What  is  very  remarkable,  it  was,  it  seems,  “  usual  in  such 
cases,  for  the  crime  to  spread  itself,  even  whilst  under  persecu¬ 
tion.”  In  the  face  of  such  dangers,  these  heathens  would  still 
profess  faith  in  Christ,  and  when  they  might  have  saved  their  lives 
by  reviling  him,  refused  to  do  so.  From  the  published  rescript  of 
the  Emperor,  approving  of  Pliny’s  course,  and  condemning  to 
death  all  who  were  convicted  of  being  really  Christians — from  the 
public  circulars  of  the  Apostles,  warning  them  of  “fiery  trials,” 
“  Satan  casting  some  of  them  into  prison,”  and  exhorting  them  to 
“be  faithful  unto  death ;”  and  from  such  comments  on  these  as 
the  torture  and  public  execution  of  aged  women  as  well  as  men, 
— the  terms  of  disciplcship  Avere  Avell  known  to  the  whole  world. 
Yet  Ave  see  that  in  the  face  of  all  this,  “  great  numbers  of  persons, 
of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages,  and  of  every  rank,”  in  Pliny’s 
opinion,  AArere  so  steadfast  in  their  faith,  that  “  they  wero  in  great 
danger  of  suffering.” 

Here  then  is  another  well  attested  fact,  in  which  the  testimony 
of  the  apostles  stands  confirmed  by  the  signatures  of  the  Bithy- 
nian  Governor,  and  the  Homan  Emperor — a  fact  which  stands 
forth  clear,  prominent,  most  undoubted,  without  the  smallest  trace 
of  any  thing  mythological  or  misty  about  it — that,  in  A.  D.  10G, 
great  numbers  of  converted  heathens  did  suffer  exile,  torture,  and 
death  itself,  rather  than  renounce  Christ ;  and  that  it  was  well 
knoAvn  that  the  Christian  faith  enabled  its  possessor  to  overcome 
the  world. 

These  four  great  facts  of  the  later  Epistles,  being  thus  establish¬ 
ed  beyond  dispute,  in  pursuance  of  our  plan,  Ave  ascend  the 
stream  of  history  some  forty  years,  to  the  time  of  the  earlier 
Epistles,  when  Paul  lay  in  the  Mamertine  dungeons,  and  his  faith¬ 
ful  companion,  Luke,  wrote  the  continuation  of  his  narrative  of 

,  109  • 


14 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


the  tilings  most  surely  believed  among  tlie  Christians ;  when 
“  Apostles  were  made  as  the  tilth  of  the  world,  and  the  offscour- 
ing  of  all  tilings  ;”  and  Christians  “were  made  a  gazing  stock, 
both  by  reproaches  and  afflictions;”  “were  brought  before  kings 
and  rulers,  and  hated  of  all  nations  for  Christ’s  name  sake;”  “en¬ 
dured  a  great  fight  of  afilictions ;”  were  “  for  liis  sake  killed  all 
the  day  long,  and  annointed  as  sheep  for  the  slaughter  ;”  were 
made  a  spectacle  to  the  world,  to  angels,  and  to  men.”  We  re¬ 
move  the  field  of  our  investigation  from  a  remote  Province  of  Asia, 
to  one  equally  remote  from  Judea,  and  far  more  unfavorable  for 
the  growth  of  the  religion  of  a  crucified  Jew — the  proud  capital  of 
the  world — imperial  Rome.  The  time  shall  be  shortly  after  the 
burning  of  the  city,  in  A.  D.  64,  and  during  the  raging  of  the 
first  of  those  systematic,  imperial,  and  savage  persecutions 
through  which  the  Church  of  Christ  waded,  in  the  bloody  foot¬ 
steps  of  her  Lord,  to  world-wide  influence,  and  undying  fame. 
Our  historian  shall  be  the  well  known  Tacitus;  and  the  single  ex¬ 
tract  from  his  history,  one  of  which  the  infidel  Gibbon  says:* 
“  The  most  sceptical  criticism  is  obliged  to  respect  the  truth  of 
this  important  fact,  and  the  integrity  of  this  celebrated  passage  of 
Tacitus.”  I  shall  not  insert  quotations  from  Paul  or  Luke  ;  that 
were  merely  to  transcribe  large  portions  of  the  Epistles  and  Gos¬ 
pels,  which  whoever  will  not  carefully  peruse,  disqualifies  himself 
for  forming  a  judgment  of  their  veracity.  The  confirmation  of 
the  four  facts  already  established,  of  the  existence,  worship, 
morals,  and  sufferings  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ;  and  these  facts 
as  well  known  within  thirty  years  after  his  death,  will  sufficiently 
appear  by  the  perusal  of  the  following  testimony  of  Tacitus.  + 

After  relating  the  burning  of  the  city,  and  Nero’s  attempt  to 
transfer  the  odium  of  it  to  the  sect  “  commonly  known  by  the 
name  of  Christians,  he  says:” 

“  The  author  of  that  name  was  Christ,  Avho,  in  the  reign  of  Ti¬ 
berius,  was  put  to  death  as  a  criminal,  under  the  procurator,  Pontius 
Pilate.  But  this  pestilent  superstition,  checked  for 'awhile,  broke  out 
afresh,  and  spread  not  only  over  Judea,  where  the  evil  originated,  but 
also  in  Rome,  where  all  that  is  evil  on  the  earth  finds  its  way,  and  is 
practised.  At  first,  those  only  were  apprehended  who  confessed 
themselves  of  that  sect  ;  afterward,  a  vast  multitude  discovered  by 
them  ;  all  of  whom  were  condemned,  not  so  much  for  the  crime  of 
burning  the  city,  as  for  their  enmity  to  mankind.  Their  executions 


110 


*  Decline  and  Fall,  vol.  2,  p.  407. 


fLib.  xv.  chap.  44. 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


15 


were  so  contrived,  as  to  expose  them  to  derision  and  contempt.  Some 
were  covered  over  with  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  that  they  might  be 
torn  to  pieces  by  dogs  ;  some  were  crucified  ;  while  others,  having 
been  daubed  over  with  combustible  materials,  were  set  up  for  lights 
in  the  night  time,  and  thus  burned  to  death.  For  these  spectacles 
Nero  gave  his  own  gardens,  and,  at  the  same  time,  exhibited  there 
the  diversions  of  the  circus  ;  sometimes  standing  in  the  crowd  as  a 
spectator,  in  the  habit  of  a  charioteer;  and,  at  other  times,  driving  a 
chariot  himself  ;  until  at  length  these  men,  though  really  criminal, 
and  deserving  of  exemplary  punishment,  began  to  be  commiserated, 
as  people  who  were  destroyed,  not  out  of  regard  to  the  public  wel¬ 
fare,  but  only  to  gratify  the  cruelty  of  one  man.” 

We  add  no  comment  on  this  remarkable  passage.  Take  up 
your  New  Testament  and  read  the  contemporary  history — Acts  22 
to  the  end  of  the  book — and  the  letters  of  Paul  from  Rome,  to 
Philemon,  Titus,  the  Ephesians,  Philippians,  Colossians,  and  the 
second  to  Timothy,  written  when  the  aged  prisoner  was  ready  to 
be  offered,  and  the  time  of  his  departure,  amidst  such  scenes  and 
sufferings,  was  at  hand.  Then  form  your  own  opinion  as  to  the 
origin  and  nature  of  that  faith  in  Jesus  which  enabled  him  to  say: 
“None  of  these  things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto 
me,  that  I  may  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  testimony 
which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus.”  “I  know  in  whom  I 
have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that 
which  I  have  committed  to  Him  against  that  day.” 

Whatever  nni}7  be  your  opinion  of  the  Apostles’  hope  for  the 
future,  you  must  acknowledge  that  we  have  ascertained,  beyond 
contradiction,  those  four  facts  of  the  past: 

1.  That  without  the  power  of  force,  or  the  help  of  governments, 
and  in  spite  of  them,  they  did  convert  vast  multitudes  of  idolaters 
from  a  senseless  worship  of  stocks  and  stones,  to  the  worship  of 
the  one  living  and  true  God — a  thing  never  done  by  the  preachers 
of  any  other  religion  before  or  since. 

2.  That  without  the  help  of  power  or  civil  law,  and  solely  by 
moral  and  spiritual  means,  they  did  persuade  multitudes  of  licen¬ 
tious  heathens  to  give  up  their  vices,  and  obey  the  pure  precepts 
of  the  morality  contained  in  their  Epistles — a  thing  never  done  by 
the  preachers  of  any  other  religion  before  or  since. 

3.  That  these  converts  were  so  firmly  persuaded  of  the  truth  of 
their  new  religion,  that,  with  the  choice  of  life  and  worldly  honor, 
or  a  death  of  infamy  and  torture  before  them,  multitudes  deliber¬ 
ately  chose  to  suffer  torture  and  death  rather  than  renounce  the  be- 

%• 

lief  in  one  God,  obedience  to  his  laws,  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life 

111 


16 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  FACT  OR  FABLE. 


through  Jesus  Christ,  which  they  had  learned  from  the  sermons 
and  letters  of  these  Apostles — a  thing  never  done  by  the  profes¬ 
sors  of  any  other  religion  before  or  since.* 

4.  The  faith  which  produced  such  an  illumination  of  their 
minds;  which  caused  such  a  blessed  change  in  their  lives;  which 
filled  them  with  joy  and  hope,  and  enabled  them  even  to  despise 
torture  and  death,  was  briefly  this:  “That  Christ  died  for  our 
sins,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  that  he  was  buried,  and  that 
he  rose  again  on  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  that 
he  ascended  up  into  heaven,  and  will  come  again  to  judge  the 
world,  and  reward  every  man  according  to  his  works,  and  that 
whosoever  believes  these  things  in  his  heart,  and  confesses  them 
with  his  mouth,  shall  be  saved;  and  he  that  believeth  them  not, 
shall  be  damned. ” 

It  is  a  fact,  then,  indisputably  proved  by  history,  that  the  New 
Testament  does  teach  a  religion  which  can  enlighten  men’s  minds, 
reform  their  lives,  give  peace  to  their  consciences,  and  enable  them 
to  meet  death  with  a  joyful  hope  of  life  eternal.  It  has  done  these 
things  in  times  past,  and  is  doing  them  now.  These  are  its  un¬ 
doubted  fruits.  Header,  this  faith  may  be  yours.  It  will  work 
the  same  results  in  you  as  it  has  done  in  others.  Like  causes  ever 
produce  like  effects.  Jesus  waits  to  deliver  you  from  your  sins,  to 
fill  you  with  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  and  make  you  abound  in 
hope,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  has  promised,  if  you 
will  ask  it,  “I  will  give  them  a  heart  to  know  me  that  I  am  the 
Lord,” 

*The  sufferings  of  the  Jews,  under  Antiochus,  are  no  exception.  They  suffered  for 
their  faith  in  the  true  God,  the  Messiah  to  come,  and  a  resurrection  to  life  eternal. 


!¥©•  28. 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES! 


**  Thai  which  was  from  ihe  beginning,  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled  of 
ihe  Word  of  Life— that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard,  declare  we 
unto  you.” — 1  John,  i:  1. 

We  have  seen  that  the  companions  of  Jesus  wrote  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament — that  their  statements  of  the  existence, 
worship,  morals,  and  faith  of  the  Christian  church  are  confirmed 
by  their  enemies,  and  that  multitudes  of  heathens  were  turned  from 
vice  to  virtue  by  the  belief  of  the  testimony  of  these  men — they 
testified  that  Jesus  Christ  did  many  wonderful  miracles — died  for 
our  sins,  and  rose  again  from  the  dead — that  they  saw,  and  heard, 
and  felt  his  body,  and  ate,  and  drank,  and  conversed  with  him  for 
forty  days  after  his  resurrection — that  he  ascended  up  to  heaven 
in  their  sight — that  he  sent  them  to  tell  the  world  that  he  will  come 
again  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  with  his  mighty  angels,  to  judge  the 
living  and  the  dead — that  he  who  believes  these  things  and  is  bap¬ 
tized  shall  be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned. 
This  is  their  statement.  The  question  is,  Can  we  believe  them  ? 

1.  The  first  thing  Avhich  strikes  us  in  their  testimony  is,  that  it 
stands  out  utterly  different  from  all  other  religions.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  world  like  it,  not  even  its  counterfeits.  The  great 
central  fact  of  Christianity — that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  and  rose 
again  from  the  dead — stands  absolutely  alone  in  the  history  of 
religions.  The  priests  of  Baal,  Brahma,  or  Jupiter,  never  dreamed 
of  such  a  thing.  The  prophets  of  Mohammedanism,  Mormonism, 
or  Pantheism,  have  never  attempted  to  imitate  it.  The  great 
object  of  all  counterfeit  Christians  is  to  deny  it. 

There  is  no  instance  in  the  whole  world’s  history  of  any  other 
religion  ever  producing  the  same  effects.  We  demand  any  other 
instance  of  men  destitute  of  wealth,  arms,  power,  and  learning, 
converting  multitudes  of  lying,  lustful,  murdering  idolaters,  into 
honest,  peaceable,  virtuous  Christians,  simply  by  prayer  and 
preaching.  When  the  infidel  tells  us  of  the  rapid  spread  of  Mo¬ 
hammedanism  and  Mormonism — impostures  which  enlist  disciples 
8  113 


2 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


by  promising  free  license  to  lust,  robbery  and  murder,  and  retain 
them  by  the  terror  of  the  scimeter  and  the  rifle  ball — which  reduce 
mankind  to  the  most  abject  servitude,  and  womankind  to  the  most 
debasing  concubinage — which  have  turned  the  fairest  regions  of 
the  earth  to  a  wilderness,  and  under  whose  blighting  influence 
commerce,  arts,  science,  industry,  comfort,  and  the  human  race 
itself,  have  withered  away — he  simply  insults  our  common  sense, 
by  ignoring  the  difference  between  backgoing  vice  and"  ongoing 
virtue;  or  acknowledges  that  he  knows  as  little  about  Mohamme¬ 
danism,  as  he  does  about  Christianity.  The  gospel  stands  alone 
in  its  doctrines,  singular  in  its  operation,  unequaled  in  its  success. 

2.  The  next  important  point  for  consideration  is,  that  the  Christ¬ 
ianity  preached  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  is  a  whole — a  single 
system,  which  we  must  either  take  or  leave — believe  entirely,  or 
entirely  reject  as  an  imposture.  There  is  no  middle  ground  for 
you  to  occupy.  It  is  all  true,  or  all  false.  For  instance,  you  can 
not  take  one  of  Paul’s  epistles  and  say,  “  this  is  true,”  and  take 
another  of  the  same  man’s  letters,  containing  the  very  same 
religion,  and  say,  “this  is  false.”  If  you  accept  the  very  briefest 
of  Paul’s  letters,  that  to  Philemon,  containing  only  thirteen 
sentences  on  private  business,  you  accept  eleven  distinct  asser¬ 
tions  of  the  authority,  grace,  love,  and  divinity  of  our  Lord. 
Nor  can  you  say  you  will  accept  Peter’s  letters  and  reject  Paul’s; 
for  you  will  find  the  very  same  facts  asserted  by  the  one  as  by  the 
other;  and  moreover,  Peter  endorses  “all  the  epistles  of  our 
beloved  brother  Paul”  as  on  the  same  pedestal  of  authority  with 
the  other  Scriptures.  You  can  not  say,  “  I  will  accept  the  letters 
and  reject  the  history,”  for  the  letters  have  no  meaning  without 
the  history.  They  are  founded  upon  it,  and  assume  or  allege  its 
facts  on  every  page.  Were  the  gospels  lost,  we  could  collect  a 
good  account  of  the  birth,  teaching,  death,  resurrection,  ascension, 
and  almighty  power  of  the  Lord  Christ  from  Paul’s  epistles ;  and 
these  letters  are  just  as  confident  in  alleging  the  miraculous  part 
of  the  history  as  the  gospels  themselves.  Neither  can  you  gain 
any  advantage  by  saying,  “I  accept  the  gospels,  but  reject  the 
letters,”  for  there  is  not  a  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament  which  is 
not  taught  in  the  very  first  of  them,  the  gospel  by  Matthew. 
Further,  the  gospels  contain  the  most  solemn  authentication  of  the 
commissions  of  the  Apostles,  so  that  whosoever  rejects  their  teach- 
114 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


3 


ing,  brings  upon  himself  guilt  equal  to  that  of  rejecting  Christ 
himself.  “  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway” — “He  that  receiveth  you 
receiveth  me,  and  he  that  receiveth  me  receiveth  him  that  sent 
me  ” — “  Whosoever  will  not  receive  you,  nor  hear  your  words, 
when  ye  depart  out  of  that  house  or  city,  shake  off  the  dust  of 
your  feet.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for 
the  land  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  in  the  day  of  judgment,  than  for 
that  city.” 

It  is,  if  possible,  more  absurd  to  attempt  to  dissect  the  morality 
of  the  gospel  from  its  history,  and  to  say,  “We  are  willing  to 
receive  the  Christian  code  of  morals  as  a  very  excellent  rule  of 
life,  and  to  regard  Jesus  as  a  rare  example  of  almost  superhuman 
virtue,  but  we  must  consider  the  narrative  of  supernatural  events 
interwoven  with  it  as  mythological,”  i.  e.,  false.  Which  is  much 
the  same  as  to  say,  “  We  will  be  very  happy  to  receive  your  friend 
if  he  will  only  cut  his  head  off.”  Of  what  possible  use  would  the 
Christian  code  of  morals  be  without  the  authority  of  Christ,  the 
lawgiver?  If  he  possessed  no  divine  authority,  what  right  has  he 
to  control  your  inclination  or  mine?  And  if  he  will  never  return 
to  inquire  whether  men  obey  or  disobey  his  law,  who  will  regard 
it?  Do  you  suppose  the  world  will  be  turned  upside  down,  and 
reformed,  by  a  little  good  advice?  Nay,  verily,  the  world  has  had 
trial  of  that  vanity  long  enough.  “We  must  all  appear  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things 
done  in  the  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be 
good  or  bad.  Knowing,  therefore,  the  terrors  of  the  Lord ,  we 
persuade  men.” 

Take  away  the  miraculous  and  supernatural  from  the  gospel 
history,  and  there  is  nothing  left  for  you  to  accept.  There  is  no 
natural  history  nor  worldly  code  of  morality  in  it.  It  is  wholly 
the  history  of  a  supernatural  person,  and  every  precept  of  his 
morality  comes  with  a  divine  sanction.  Further,  you  know  nothing 
of  either  his  life  or  his  morality  but  from  the  gospel  history,  and 
if  the  record  of  the  miracles  which  occupy  three-fourths  of  the 
gospels  be  false,  what  reason  have  you  to  give  any  credit  to  the 
remainder?  For,  as  the  German  commentator,  DeWette,  well  says, 
“  The  only  means  of  acquaintance  with  a  history  is  the  narrative 
we  possess  concerning  it,  and  beyond  that  narrative  the  interpreter 
can  not  go.  In  these.  Bible  records,  the  narrative  reports  to  us 


4 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


only  a  supernatural  course  of  events,  which  we  must  either  receive 
or  reject.  If  we  reject  the  narrative,  we  know  nothing  at  all  about 
the  event,  and  we  are  not  justified  in  allowing  ourselves  to  invent 
a  natural  course  of  events  of  which  the  narrative  is  totally  silent.” 
So,  you  see,  you  can  not  make  a  Christ  to  suit  your  taste,  but  must 
just  take  the  Christ  of  the  gospel,  or  reject  him. 

If  you  reject  the  testimony  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  as  false, 
and  say  you  can  not  believe  them  in  matters  of  fact,  how  can  you 
respect  their  morality  ?  Of  all  the  absurdities  of  modern  infidelity, 
the  respectful  language  generally  used  by  its  advocates  in  speakng 
of  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  is  the  most  inconsistent.  He  claimed 
to  be  a  Divine  Person,  and  professed  to  work  miracles.  The  infidel 
says  he  was  not  a  Divine  Person,  and  wrought  no  miracles.  The 
consequence  is  unavoidable — such  a  pretender  is  a  blasphemous 
impostor.  And  yet  they  speak  of  him  as  “  a  model  man,”  an 
“  exemplar  of  every  virtue.”  What! — an  impostor  a  model  man? 
A  blasphemer  and  liar  an  exemplar  of  every  virtue?  Is  that  the 
infidel's  notion  of  virtue?  Why,  the  devils  were  more  consistent 
in  their  commendations  of  his  character,  “We  know  thee  who  thou 
art,  the  Holy  One  of  God.”  Let  our  modern  enemies  of  Christ 
learn  consistency  from  their  ancient  allies.  We  have  also  learned 
from  our  Master  to  refuse  all  hypocritical,  half-way  professions  of 
respect  for  his  character  aud  teachings  from  those  whose  business 
is  to  prove  him  a  deceiver,  and  whose  object  in  speaking  respect¬ 
fully  of  such  a  one,  can  only  be  to  gain  a  larger  audience,  and  a 
readier  entrance  for  their  blasphemy  among  his  professed  disciples. 
From  every  man  who  professes  respect  for  Christ’s  character  and 
for  the  morality  which  he  and  his  Apostles  taught,  we  demand  a 
straightforward  answer  to  the  questions:  “  When  he  declared  him¬ 
self  the  Son  of  God,  the  Judge  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  did  ho 
tell  the  truth,  or  did  he  lie?  When  he  promised  to  attest  his 
Divine  Commission  by  rising  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day,  had 
he  any  such  power,  or  did  he  only  mean  to  play  a  juggling  im¬ 
posture?  Is  Jesus  the  Christ  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,  or  a 
deceiver?”  There  is  no  middle  ground.  He  that  is  not  with  him 
is  against  him. 

The  case  is  just  the  same  with  regard  to  the  witnesses  of  his 
miracles,  death,  and  resurrection.  They  either  give  a  true  relation 
of  these  things,  or  they  have  manufactured  a  series  of  falsehoods. 

116 


vs>. rC  TTt  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  H:  S  APOSTLES. 


5 


IIow  can  we  believe  anything  from  persons  so  habituated  to  lying 
as  the  narrators  of  the  mighty  works  of  Jesus  must  be,  if  those 
mighty  works  were  never  performed  ?  How  can  we  accept  their 
code  of  morals  if  we  refuse  to  believe  them  when  they  speak  of 
matters  of  fact  ?  Is  it  possible  to  respect  men  as  moral  teachers, 
whom  we  have  convicted  of  forging  stories  of  miracles  that  never 
occurred,  and  confederating  together  to  impose  a  lying  superstition 
on  the  world  ?  For  this  is  plainly  the  very  point  and  center  of  the 
question  about  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  and  I  am  anxious  you  should 
see  it  clearly.  A  fair  statement  of  this  question  is  half  the  argu¬ 
ment.  The  question  then  is  simply  this,  AVas  Jesus  really  the 
Divine  Person  he  claimed  to  be,  or  was  he  a  blasphemous  im¬ 
postor?  AFhen  the  Apostles  unitedly  and  solemnly  testified  that 
they  had  seen  him  after  he  was  risen  from  the  dead,  that  they  ate 
and  drank  with  him,  that  their  hands  had  handled  his  body,  that 
they  conversed  with  him  for  forty  days,  and  saw  him  go  up  to 
heaven,  did  they  tell  the  truth,  or  were  they  a  confederated  band  of 
liars?  There  is  no  reason  for  any  other  supposition.  They  could 
not  possibly  be  deceived  themselves  in  the  matters  they  relate. 
They  knew  perfectly  whether  they  were  true  or  not.  We  are  not 
talking  about  matters  of  dogma,  about  which  there  might  be  room 
for  difference  of  opinion,  but  about  matters  of  fact — about  what 
men  say  they  saw,  and  heard,  and  felt — about  which  no  man  of 
common  sense  could  possibly  be  mistaken.  “  That  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  eyes,  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  looked 
upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled  of  the  AA7ord  of  Life — that 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard,  declare  we  unto  you.”  Such  is 
their  language.  AFe  must  either  take  it  as  truth,  or  reject  it  as 
falsehood.  It  is  utter  nonsense  to  talk  of  the  intense  subjectivity 
of  the  Jewish  mind,  and  the  belief  of  the  Apostles,  that  the  Mes¬ 
siah  would  do  wonders  Avhen  he  came,  and  the  powerful  impressions 
produced  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus  on  their  minds.  AAre  are  not 
talking  about  impressions  on  their  minds,  but  about  impressions 
produced  on  their  eyes,  and  ears,  and  hands.  Did  these  men  tell 
the  truth  when  they  told  the  world  that  they  did  eat  and  drink 
with  Jesus  after  he  rose  from  the  dead,  or  did  they  lie?  That  is 
the  question. 

3.  It  is  a  hard  matter  to  lie  well.  A  liar  has  need  of  a  good 
memory,  else -he  will  contradict  himself  before  he  writes  far.  And 

117 


6 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


lie  needs  to  be  very  well  posted  up  in  the  matters  of  names,  dates, 
places,  manners  and  customs,  else  he  will  contradict  some  well 
known  facts,  and  so  expose  his  forgery  to  the  world.  Therefore 
writers  of  forgeries  avoid  all  such  things  as  much  as  possible,  and 
as  surely  as  they  venture  on  specifications  of  that  sort,  they  are 
detected.  A  man  who  is  conscious  of  writing  a  book  of  falsehoods, 
does  not  begin  on  this  wise:  “  JSlow  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  Tiberius  Caesar,  Pontius  Pilate  being  Governor  of  Judea, 
and  Ilerod  being  Tetrarch  of  Galilee,  and  his  brother  Philip  Te- 
trarch  of  Iturea  and  of  the  regions  of  Trachonitis,  and  Lysanias 
Tetrarch  of  Abilene,  Annas  and  Caiphas  being  high  priests,  the 
word  of  God  came  unto  John,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness.”  Here  in  one  sentence  are  twenty  historical,  geographical, 
political,  and  genealogical  references,  every  one  of  which  we  can 
confirm  by  references  to  secular  historians.  The  enemies  of  the 
Lord  have  utterly  failed  in  their  attempts  to  disprove  one  out  of 
the  hundreds  of  such  statements  in  the  New  Testament.  The  only 
instance  of  any  public  political  event  recorded  in  the  gospel,  said 
not  to  be  confirmed  by  the  fragments  of  secular  history  we  possess, 
is  Luke’s  account  of  a  census  of  the  lloman  Empire,  ordered  by 
Augustus  Caesar.  Were  it  so  that  Luke  stood  alone  in  his  mention 

<D 

of  this,  surely  his  credit  as  a  historian  would  be  as  good  for  this 
fact,  as  the  credit  of  Tacitus,  when  he  states  matters  of  which 
Suetonius  makes  no  mention,  or  of  Pliny,  when  he  relates  things 
not  recorded  by  Tacitus.  But  we  can  account  for  the  want  of  cor¬ 
roborative  history  in  this  instance,  when  we  know  that  all  the 
history  of  Dion  Cassius,  from  the  consulships  of  Antistius  and 
Balbus  to  those  of  Messala  and  Cinna — that  is,  for  five  years 
before  and  five  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ — is  lost;  as  also 
Livy’s  history  of  the  same  period.  It  is  certain  that  some  one  did 
record  the  fact,  for  Suidas,  in  his  lexicon  upon  the  word  apographet 
says,  “that  Augustus  sent  twenty  select  men  into  all  the  provinces 
of  the  empire  to  take  a  census,  both  of  men  and  property,  and 
commanded  that  a  just,  proportion  of  the  latter  should  be  brought 
into  the  imperial  treasury.  And  this  was  the  first  census.” 

To  object  to  the  gospel  history,  that  every  thing  contained  in  it 
of  the  doings  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  in  Judea,  is  not  recorded 
by  the  historians  of  Greece  and  Italy,  is  much  the  same  as  to  say 
that  there  are  a  multitude  of  facts  recorded  in  D’Aubigne’s  History 
118 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES.  7 

of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  of  which  Ilume  and  Macaulay 
make  no  mention  in  their  histories  of  England.  How  should  they 
— treating  of  different  countries,  and  for  the  most  part  of  different 
periods,  and  writing  civil  and  not  church  history  ?  Does  any  body 
go  to  Macaulay  to  look  for  the  history  of  the  Westminster  As¬ 
sembly,  or  to  Bancroft  for  an  account  of  the  Great  Revival  in  New 
England?  Or  is  the  veracity  of  Baillie  or  Edwards  suspected, 
because  political  history  does  not  concern  itself  much  about  re¬ 
ligion  ?  It  is  enough,  that  not  a  single  statement  of  the  gospel 
history  has  ever  been  disproved. 

I  might  give  you  quotations  from  the  enemies  of  the  Christian 
faith,  from  Josephus  the  Jew,  and  Celsus  and  Porphyry,  heathen 
philosophers,  and  from  the  Emperor  Julian,  the  apostate — who, 
having  been  raised  a  Christian,  became  a  heathen,  and  used  all  his 
ingenuity  to  overturn  the  religion  of  Christ — expressly  admitting 
the  principal  miracles  recorded  in  the  gospel.  But  I  attach  no 
such  importance  to  the  testimony  of  this  class  of  persons  as  to 
suppose  that  it  should  be  placed,  for  one  moment,  on  a  level  with 
the  testimon}'-  of  the  Apostles,  or  that  their  testimony  to  the  facts 
of  the  life  and  death  of  Christ  needs  any  confirmation  from  such 
witnesses.  We  have  such  overwhelming  evidence  of  the  sincerity 
and  truth  of  the  witnesses  chosen  by  God  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  as  we  never  can  have  of  the  credibility  of 
any  secular  historian  whatever. 

You  will  remember  that  these  are  the  writers  whose  accounts  of 
the  existence,  the  faith  and  worship,  the  numbers  and  morals  of 
the  Christian  Church,  we  have  seen  so  strikingly  confirmed  by 
their  enemies ;  and  we  now  inquire,  can  we  believe  the  other  part, 
of  their  history  to  be  as  true  ?  These  are  the  men  who  taught  the 
heathen  a  pure  Christian  morality,  one  principal  article  of  which 
was,  “  Lie  not  one  to  another,  seeing  ye  have  put  off  the  old  man 
with  his  deeds  ” — “  All  liars  shall  have  their  portion  in  the  lake 
that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone  ” — and  we  are  to  inquire  if 
they  themselves  lied — lied  publicly,  lied  repeatedly — if  the  very 
business  of  their  lives  was  to  propagate  falsehood,  and  if  they 
died  with  a  lie  in  their  right  hands.  You  will  remember  that  we 
proved  conclusively  that  the  belief  of  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus  did  turn  immense  multitudes  of  wicked  men  to  a  life  of 
virtue,  and  now  we  are  to  inquire  if  the  belief  of  a  lie  produced 

119 


8 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


this  blessed  result,  and  whether,  if  so,  there  be  any  such  thing  as 
truth  in  the  world,  or  any  use  in  it? 

4.  Of  no  other  series  of  events  of  ancient  history  do  we  possess 
the  same  number  of  records  by  contemporary  historians,  as  of  the 
life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  We  have  four 
direct  systematic  memoirs  of  him  by  four  of  his  companions  ;  and 
we  have  a  collection  of  letters  by  four  others,  in  which  the  events 
of  the  memoirs  are  continually  referred  to.  At  the  mouth  of  two 
or  three  witnesses,  any  man’s  property  and  life  will  be  disposed  of 
in  a  court  of  justice,  but  here  we  have  the  testimony  of  eight  eye¬ 
witnesses  of  the  facts  they  relate,  and  they  refer  to  five  hundred 
other  persons,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were  then  alive,  who  had 
also  seen  and  heard  Christ  after  his  resurrection.  These  eight 
persons  give  us  their  separate  and  independent  statements  of  those 
things  they  deemed  worthy  of  record  in  the  life  and  death  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  sayings  and  doings  of  several  of  his  friends  and  ene¬ 
mies.  Now  every  person  knows  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  two 
crooked  boughs  tally,  or  two  false  witnesses  agree.  You  never  saw 
two  lying  reports  of  any  considerable  number  of  transactions  agree, 
unless  the  one  was  copied  from  the  other. 

It  is  evident  that  the  gospels  were  not  copied  from  each  other, 
for  they  often  relate  different  events,  and  when  they  relate  the 
same  occurrence,  each  man  relates  those  parts  of  it  which  he 
saw  himself,  and  which  impressed  him  most.  Yet  the  utmost 
ingenuity  of  infidelity  has  utterly  failed  to  make  them  contradict 
each  other  in  any  particular.  Here  are  eight  witnesses  to  the 
truth  of  the  same  story,  four  of  whom  in  their  letters  make 
occasional  allusions  to  the  facts  of  the  history  as  being  perfectly 
well  known,  and  therefore  needing  only  to  be  alluded  to,  yet  these 
cursory  references  fit  into  the  history  with  every  mark  of  truth¬ 
fulness.  Does  the  history  of  Matthew,  written  at  Jerusalem,  tell 
us  that  Jesus  took  Peter,  and  James,  and  John  up  into  a  high 
mountain  apart,  and  was  transfigured  before  them  ?  Peter,  in  his 
letter,  written  from  Babylon  says,  “We  were  eye-witnesses  of  his 
majesty.  We  were  with  him  in  the  holy  mount.”  2  Pet.  ii :  16. 
If  the  history  tells  how  Paul  was  beaten  and  cast  into  prison  at 
Philippi,  and  his  feet  made  fast  in  the  stocks,  and  that,  neverthe¬ 
less,  he  manfully  defended  his  birthright  as  a  Homan  citizen,  and 
made  the  tyrannical  magistrates  humble  themselves,  and  apologise 
120  " 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


9 


for  their  illegal  conduct,  we  find  Paul  himself,  in  a  letter  to  a 
neighboring  church,  appealing  to  their  knowledge  of  the  facts, 
“that  after  we  had  suffered  before,  and  were  shamefully  entreated, 
as  ye  know,  at  Philippi,  we  were  bold  in  our  God  to  speak  unto 
you  the  gospel  of  God  with  much  contention.  For  our  exhortation 
was  not  of  deceit,  nor  of  uncleanness,  nor  in  guile.  For  neither  at 
any  time  used  we  flattering  words,  as  ye  know,  nor  a  cloak  for  covet¬ 
ousness. ”  1  Thess.  ii :  2.  Hundreds  of  such  undesigned  coin¬ 
cidences  may  be  found  in  the  New  Testament,  confirming  the 
veracity  of  the  several  historians  and  letter  writers,  and  giving 
that  impression  of  the  naturalness  and  truth  of  the  story,  which 
can  neither  be  described  nor  disputed.  The  reader  who  desires  to 
prosecute  this  interesting  branch  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 
will  find  an  ample  collection  of  these  coincidences  in  Paley’s 
Iloroe  Paulinae. 

This  agreement  of  independent  writers  is  the  more  remarkable, 
as  the  writers  were  persons  of  very  various  degrees  of  education, 
of  different  professions  and  ranks  of  life,  born  in  different  countries, 
and  writing  from  various  places  in  Italy,  Greece,  Palestine,  and 
Assyria,  without  any  communication  with  each  other.  Matthew 
was  an  officer  of  customs  in  Galilee — Mark  a  Hebrew  citizen  of 
Jerusalem — Luke  a  Greek  physician  of  Antioch — James  and  John 
owned  and  sailed  a  fishing  smack  on  Lake  Tiberias — Jude  left  his 
thirty-nine  acres  of  land,  worth  nine  thousand  denarii,  to  be  farmed 
by  his  children  when  he  went  forth  to  preach  the  gospel — and 
college-bred  Paul  carried  hij3  sturdy  independence  in  his  breast, 
and  his  sail  needles  in  his  pocket,  and  dictated  epistles,  and  cut 
out  marquees  and  lug-sails  in  the  tent  factory  of  Aquila,  Paul  & 
Co.,  at  Corinth.  Several  of  his  letters  were  written  in  a  dungeon 
in  Rome;  the  last  of  Peter’s  is  dated  at  Babylon  ;  Matthew’s  gospel 
was  penned  at  Jerusalem,  and  John’s  gospel  and  epistles  were 
written  at  Ephesus.  The  agreement  of  eight  such  witnesses,  of 
such  different  pursuits,  and  so  scattered  over  the  world,  in  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  the  same  story,  in  all  its  leading  particulars,  together  with 
their  variety  of  style  and  manner,  and  their  various  relations  of 
minor  incidents,  yet  without  a  single  contradiction,  are  most  con¬ 
vincing  proofs  that  they  all  tell  truth.  Nothing  but  truth  could  be 
thus  told  without  contradiction. 

The  fact  that  some  considerable  difficulties  and  many  minor 

121 


10 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


obscurities  in  these  brief  though  pregnant  narratives,  prevent  the 
combination  of  eight  accounts  so  independent  in  their  sources,  and 
various  in  their  style,  and  design,  and  auditors — into  a  flowing 
historical  novel — a  homogeneous  mass,  rounded  and  squared  to 
our  ideas  of  mathematical  precision — is  only  an  additional  proof 
of  their  truth  to  nature,  which  abhors  mathematical  as  much  as 
truth  does  rhetorical  figures.  Like  the  variety  of  expression  used 
by  American,  German,  French,  and  Polish  witnesses  in  our  courts 
of  justice,  testifying  the  same  facts  in  their  native  idioms,  though 
in  English  words,  the  apparent  discrepancy  but  actual  harmony 
becomes  the  most  decisive  test  of  the  absence  of  any  collusion,  and 
consequently  of  the  verity  of  the  facts  which  such  various  witnesses 
unite  in  testifying.  Especially  will  any  such  apparent  discrepancy 
resolve  itself  into  our  own  unskilfullness  or  ignorance,  when  we 
remember  that  the  mists  of  ages,  and  the  drapery  of  a  strange 
language,  and  woi’ld-wide  removal  of  residence,  and  the  turning 
of  the  world  upside  down  by  the  progress  of  Christian  civilization, 
and  our  consequent  ignorance  of  the  thousand  little  details  of  every 
day  life,  well  known  to  the  writer  and  his  immediate  readers,  and 
of  the  force  of  expressive  idioms,  perfectly  familiar  to  them — have 
rendered  us  not  near  so  capable  of  detecting  inaccuracies,  as  those 
contemporary  writers  and  opponents,  who  allowed  them — if  they 
existed — to  pass  unchallenged.  Like  those  antique  coins,  whose 
rust-dimmed  and  abbreviated  inscriptions  exercise  the  patience  and 
historic  lore  of  the  antiquarian — though  neither  are  needed  to 
declare  the  precious  material — this  very  rust  of  antiquity,  through 
which  his  patience  has  penetrated,  becomes  one  of  the  inimitable 
marks  of  historic  verit}r.  Every  year  throws  some  new  light  on 
texts  difficult  to  us  from  our  ignorance  of  those  manners,  customs, 
names,  and  places,  which  infidel  malice  and  Christian  piety  have 
combined  to  explore,  and  from  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  the  sepul¬ 
chres  of  Egypt  we  receive  unlooked-for  testimonies  to  the  minute 
accuracy  of  the  penmen  of  the  Bible. 

5.  The  manner  in  which  the  Apostles  published  their  testimony 
to  the  world,  bears  every  mark  of  truthfulness.  Deception  and 
forgery  skulk  and  try  to  spread  themselves  at  first  in  holes  and 
corners,  but  he  that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the  light.  Had  the 
Apostles  been  conscious  of  falsehood,  would  they  have  dared  to 
assert  that  Jesus  was  risen  from  the  dead  in  the  very  streets  of  the 
122 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES.  11 

city  where  he  was  crucified — in  the  temple,  the  most  public  place 
of  resort  of  the  Jews  who  saw  him  crucified — and  to  the  teeth  of 
the  very  men  who  put  him  to  death  ?  If  conscious  of  falsehood, 
would  they  have  dared,  before  the  chief  priests,  and  the  council, 
and  all  the  senate  of  Israel,  to  assert  that  “The  God  of  our  fathers 
raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye  slew  and  hanged  on  a  tree.  Him  hath 
God  exalted  with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  to 
give  repentance  to  Israel,  and  remission  of  sins.  And  we  are  his 
witnesses  of  these  things,  and  so  is  also  the  Holy  Ghost  which  God 
hath  given  to  them  that  obey  him.”  Acts  v:  30.  Would  Paul,  had 
he  been  conscious  that  he  was  relating  falsehood,  have  dared  to 
appeal  to  the  judge,  before  whom  he  was  on  trial  for  his  life,  as 
one  who  knew  the  notoriety  of  these  facts,  “For  the  king  knoweth 
of  these  things,  before  whom  also  I  speak  freely ;  for  I  am  per¬ 
suaded  that  none  of  these  things  are  hidden  from  him :  for  this 
thing  was  not  done  in  a  corner.”  Acts  xxvi :  2 G.  Would  such 
appeals  have  been  suffered  to  pass  uncontradicted  had  the  state¬ 
ments  of  the  Apostles  been  false  ? 

The  boldness  of  their  manner,  however,  of  telling  their  story, 
is  little,  compared  with  the  boldness  of  the  design  which  they 
had  in  view  in  telling  it;  which  was  nothing  less  than  to  convert 
the  world.  Now  the  idea  of  proselyting  other  nations  to  a  new 
religion,  was  absolutely  unknown  to  the  world  at  that  time.  The 
heathens  never  dreamed  of  any  such  thing.  They  would  some¬ 
times  add  a  new  god  to  their  old  Pantheon,  but  the  idea  of  turn¬ 
ing  a  nation  to  the  worship  of  new  deities  wag  never  before  heard 
of.  The  Jews  were  so  indignant  at  the  project,  that  when  Paul 
hinted  it  to  them,  they  cried,  “Away  with  such  a  felloAV  from 
the  earth,  for  it  is  not  fit  that  he  should  live.”  And  this  new 
and  strange  idea,  of  conquering  the  world  for  a  crucified  man,  is 
taken  up  by  a  few  private  citizens,  who  resolve  to  overturn  the 
craft  by  which  priests  have  their  wealth,  and  to  bring  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  to  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  Christ. 

Impostors  would  never  have  appealed  to  their  power  of  working 
miracles  as  the  Apostles  did  ;  nor  could  enthusiasts  have  done  so 
without  instant  exposure.  It  is  remarkable,  that  while  in  address¬ 
ing  those  who  believed  their  Divine  Commission,  they  rarely  allude 
to  it,  ^fourteen  of  the  epistles  make  no  allusion  to  apostolic  mir- 

123 


12  CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 

acles),  hut  dwell  on  a  subject  of  far  greater  importance — a  holy 
life — they  never  hesitate  to  confront  a  Simon  Magus,  or  a  schis- 
matical  church  at  Corinth,  or  a  persecuting  high  priest  and  sanhe¬ 
drim  with  this  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  “Tongues,”  says  Paul, 
“  are  for  a  sign,  not  to  them  that  believe,  but  to  them  that  believe 
not,”  and  this  is  true  of  all  other  miracles.  This  marks  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  real  miracles  and  those  of  pretenders,  -who  have 
never  attempted  to  establish  a  new  religion  by  them,  or  to  convert 
unbelievers  hostile  to  their  claims  and  able  to  examine  them,  with¬ 
out  immediate  exposure.  But  you  never  heard  of  an  impostor 
standing  up  before  the  tribunal  of  his  judges  and  alleging  the 
miraculous  cure  of  a  wrell  known  public  beggar,  lame  from  his 
mother’s  womb,  whom  they  had  seen  at  the  church  gate  every 
Sabbath  for  forty  years,  and  bringing  the  man  into  court  after  such 
a  fashion  as  this,  “If  we  this  day  be  examined  of  the  good  deed 
done  unto  the  impotent  man,  by  what  means  he  is  made  whole, 
be  it  known  unto  you  all,  and  to  all  the  people  of  Israel,  that 
by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  whom  ye  crucified, 
whom  God  raised  from  the  dead,  even  by  him  doth  this  man 
stand  before  you  whole.”  Such  an  appeal  wras  unanswerable 
“Beholding  the  man  that  was  healed  standing  with  them,  they 
could  say  nothing  against  it.”  Nay,  they  were  compelled  to 
acknowledge  “that  indeed  a  notable  miracle  hath  been  done  by 
them  is  manifest  to  all  them  that  dwell  in  Jerusalem — wre  can  not 
deny  it.”  Acts  iv. 

The  denial  of  the  miracles  of  the  Gospel  is  a  modern  invention 
of  the  enemy.  The  Scribes  and  Priests,  Emperors  and  Philoso¬ 
phers  of  the  first  centuries,  who  had  the  best  opportunity  of  proving 
their  falsehood,  were  unable  to  do  so.  The  persecutors  and  apos¬ 
tates,  whose  malice  against  the  church  knew  no  bounds,  never 
dared  to  utter  a  charge  of  deception  against  the  Apostles.  Why, 
then,  you  ask,  did  they  not  all  become  Christians?  Because  mira¬ 
cles  can  not  convert  any  man  against  his  will.  Christianity  is  not 
merely  a  belief  in  miracles,  but  the  love  of  Christ  and  a  life  of 
holiness.  There  are  many  readers  of  this  tract  who  would  not 
turn  from  their  sins  if  all  the  dead  in  Spring  Grove  Cemetery 
would  rise  to-morrow  to  warn  them  from  hell.  God  does  not  intend 
to  force  any  man  to  become  a  Christian.  lie  just  gives  evidence 
enough  to  try  you,  whether  you  will  deal  honestly  and  fairly 
124 


CAN  WE  RELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


13 


■with  your  own  soul  and  your  God,  and  if  you  are  determined 
to  hate  Christ  and  his  holy  religion,  you  shall  never  want  a 
plausible  excuse  for  unbelief;  as  it  is  written,  “Unto  them 
which  are  disobedient,  Christ  is  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock 
of  offence.”  These  ancient  enemies  of  Christ  acknowledged  the 
reality  of  his  miracles,  but  attributed  them  to  magical  power, 
or  the  help  of  Satan.  The  Jews  said  that  he  had  acquired  the 
power  of  miracles  by  learning  to  pronounce  the  incommunicable 
name  of  God.  Modern  infidels  deny  all  his  miracles  save  the 
greatest — the  turning  of  men  from  their  sins.  They  can  not  deny 
that — they  can  not  ascribe  it  to  the  power  of  Satan  or  of  magic, 
for  they  do  not  believe  in  either — but  they  follow  as  nearly  in  the 
footsteps  of  their  fathers  as  possible,  when  they  tell  us  that  multi¬ 
tudes  of  men,  in  every  age,  and  in  every  land,  have  been  turned 
from  falsehood  to  truth  by  the  belief  of  a  lie,  and  from  vice  to 
virtue  by  the  example  of  an  impostor ! 

6.  But  the  strongest  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  facts  of  the  gospel, 
is  the  existence,  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  the  Apostles  them¬ 
selves.  Nobody  denies  that  such  men  lived,  and  preached,  and 
were  persecuted  on  account  of  their  preaching  that  Jesus  died  and 
rose  again.  Now,  if  this  was  a  falsehood,  what  motive  had  they 
to  tell  it  ?  It  was  very  displeasing  to  their  rulers  who  had  crucified 
him,  and  who  had  every  inclination  to  give  them  the  same  treat¬ 
ment.  To  preach  another  king,  one  Jesus,  to  the  Romans,  was 
to  bring  down  the  powrer  of  the  empire  upon  them.  Nothing  could 
be  more  absurd  in  the  eyes  of  the  Grecian  philosophers  than  to 
speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Nor  could  any  plan  be 
devised  more  certain  to  arouse  the  fury  of  the  pagan  priesthood, 
than  to  denounce  the  craft  by  which  they  had  their  wealth,  and  to 
preach  that  they  are  no  gods  which  are  made  by  hands.  The  most 
degraded  wretch  who  perishes  by  the  hand  of  the  hangman,  is  not 
so  contemptible  in  our  eyes,  as  the  crucified  malefactor  was  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Roman  people  ;  nor  could  any  thing  more  disagreeable 
to  the  Jewish  nation  be  invented,  than  the  declaration  that  the 
Gentiles  should  become  partakers  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  What 
then  should  induce  any  man  in  his  senses  to  provoke  such  an 
opposition  to  a  new  religion,  and  to  make  it  so  contemptible  and 
disagreeable  to  those  whom  he  sought  to  convert,  if  he  were  manu¬ 
facturing  a  lie  to  gain  power  and  popularity  ? 


125 


14 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


The  religion  they  preached  was  not  adapted  to  please  sensual 
men,  nor  to  allow  its  preachers  in  sensual  gratifications.  “Our 
exhortation,' ”  says  Paul — and  every  reader  of  the  New  Testament 
knows  that  he  says  truth — “Our  exhortation  was  not  of  deceit,  nor 
of  uncleanness,  nor  of  guile.”  Infidels  admit  that  they  preached 
a  pure  morality.  But  it  is  a  long  time  since  men  learned  the 
proverb,  “Physician  heal  thyself.”  “Thou  that  preachest  a  man 
should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal?  Thou  that  sayest  a  man  should  . 
not  commit  adultery,  dost  thou  commit  adultery  ?  Thou  that  ab- 
horrest  idols,  dost  thou  commit  sacrilege?”  It  could  not,  then,  be 
to  obtain  license  for  lust  that  these  men  preached  holiness. 

There  is  only  one  other  conceivable  motive  which  should  induce 
men  to  confederate  together  for  the  propagation  of  falsehood — the 
design  of  making  money  by  it.  But  their  new  religion  made  no 
provision  for  any  such  thing.  One  of  their  first  acts  was  to  desire 
the  church  to  elect  deacons  who  might  manage  its  money  matters, 
and  allow  them  to  give  themselves  wholly  to  prayer  and  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word.  Twenty-five  years  after  that  they  could 
appeal  to  the  world  that  “Even  to  this  present  hour,  we,  (the 
Apostles,)  both  hunger  and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are  buffeted, 
and  have  no  certain  dwelling  place,  and  labor  working  with  our 
hands  ;  being  reviled,  we  bless  ;  being  persecuted,  we  suffer  it : 
we  are  counted  as  the  filth  of  the  world,  and  the  offscouring  of  all 
things  to  this  day.”  Their  book  opens  with  the  story  of  their 
Master’s  birth  in  a  stable,  with  the  manger  for  his  cradle,  and  one 
of  its  last  pictures  is  that  of  his  venerable  Apostle  chained  in  a 
dungeon,  and  begging  his  friend  to  bring  his  old  cloak  from  Troas, 
and  to  do  his  diligence  to  come  before  winter. 

Unpopular,  pure,  and  penniless,  if  the  gospel  story  were  not 
true,  how  could  it  have  had  preachers  ?  They  at  least  believed  it. 

The  last  and  most  convincing  testimony  which  any  man  can 
give  to  the  truth  of  a  statement  of  fact,  is  to  suffer  rather  than 
deny  it.  Many  have  wondered  why  God  allowed  his  dear  servants 
to  suffer  so  much  persecution  in  the  first  ages  of  the  church.  One 
principal  reason  was  to  give  future  ages  an  irresistible  proof  of 
the  sincerity  and  faithfulness  of  the  witnesses  for  Christ.  The 
Apostles  lived  lives  of  persecution  and  suffering  for  the  name  of 
Jesus — sufferings  which  they  might  have  avoided  if  they  had  only 
abstained  from  preaching  any  more  in  this  name.  But,  said  they, 
126 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


15 


“  We  can  not  but  speak  the  things  we  have  seen  and  heard.  One 
who  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  Jesus,  and  whose  first 
interview  with  him  was  while  he  was  breathing:  out  threatening: 
and  slaughter  against  the  disciples  of  the  Lord,  is  converted  and 
called  tojbe  an  Apostle;  and  behold  the  prospect  Jesus  presents 
to  him,  “I  will  show  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for  my 
name  ”  “  The  Holy  Ghost  testitieth,  says  Paul,  that  in  every  city 

bonds  and  afflictions  abide  me.  Yet  none  of  these  things  move 
me.”  That  at  least  was  a  true  prophecy.  “  Seven  times,”  says 
Clement,  “  he  was  in  bonds,  he  was  whipt,  he  was  stoned  ;  he 
preached  both  in  the  east  and  west,  leaving  behind  him  the  glo¬ 
rious  report  of  his  faith,  and  so  having  taught  the  whole  world 
righteousness,  and  for  that  end  traveled  even  to  the  utmost  bounds 
of  the  west,  he  at  last  suffered  martyrdom  by  the  command  of  the 
governors,  and  went  to  his  holy  place,  having  become  a  most 
eminent  pattern  of  patience  to  all  ages.*  Hear  his  own  appeal  to 
those  who  envied  his  authority  in  the  church,  “  Are  they  ministers 
of  Christ,  I  am  more  :  in  labors  more  abundant,  in  stripes  above 
measure,  in  prisons  more  frequent,  in  deaths  often.  Of  the  Jews 
five  times  received  I  forty  stripes  save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten 
with  rods,  once  was  I  stoned,  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a  night 
and  a  day  I  have  been  in  the  deep  :  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils 
of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  by  my  own  countrymen, 
in  perils  by  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the 
wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false  brethren ; 
in  weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and 
thirst,  in  cold  and  nakedness.”  1  Cor.  ii :  23. 

Man  can  give  no  higher  proof  of  his  veracity,  than  a  life  such  as 
this,  unless  it  be  to  seal  it  with  his  blood  ;  and  this  crowning 
testimony  to  the  truth  the  Apostles  gave.  Save  the  aged  disciple, 
who,  after  torments  worse  than  death,  survived  to  address  the 
persecuted  church  as — “Your  companion  in  tribulation,  and  in 
the  kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ,”  they  all  suffered 
martyrdom  for  the  truth  of  the  gospel  history. 

Let  me  again  remind  you  that  the  gospel  is  not  a  collection  of 
dogmas,  but  a  relation  of  facts — that  these  twelve  men  did  not 
preach  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus,  because  they  had  read 
them  in  a  creed,  but  because  they  had  seen  them  with  their  own 
eyes — that  they  lived  holy  lives  of  toil,  and  hardship,  and  poverty, 


*  Wake’s  Trans,  of  Clement,  Ep.  ad  Cor.  v. 


127 


16 


CAN  WE  BELIEVE  CHRIST  AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


and  suffering,  in  preaching  these  facts  to  the  world:  and,  that 
they  died  painful  and  shameful  deaths,  as  martyrs  for  their  truth. 
You  admit  these  things.  Then  I  demand  of  you,  “  What  more 
could  either  God  or  man  do  to  convince  you  of  their  truthfulness  V} 

The  faithful  and  true  witness  himself  has  given  you  this  last, 
undeniable,  test  of  veracity.  With  the  certainty  of  an  ignominious 
death  before  him,  he  solemnly  swears  to  the  truth  of  this  fact,  and 
dies  for  it.  “  And  the  high  priest  answered  and  said  unto  him,  I 
adjure  thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us  whether  thou  be 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ?  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  thou  hast  said. 
Hereafter  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
poAver,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. ” 

Unbelie\'er,  are  you  prepared  to  meet  him  there,  and  prove  him 
a  perjured  impostor? 


No.  S9. 


PROPHECY, 


“In  fifty  years  all  Europe  will  be  either  Cossack  or  Repub¬ 
lican.”  So  prophesied  the  most  sagacious  of  modern  politicians, 
without  any  pretence  to  Divine  inspiration,  other  than  the  inspira¬ 
tion  of  genius,  when  calculating  the  prospects  of  the  future  by  the 
light  of  his  past  experience.  “All  genius  is  prophetic,  inasmuch 
as  it  grasps  general  laws,  universal  in  their  range,  and  invariable 
in  their  operation,  the  application  of  which  to  particular  events 
constitutes  prediction.  The  Hebrew  prophets  were  sagacious  ob¬ 
servers  of  human  nature,  and  made  very  shrewd  calculations  of 
the  future  progress  of  events,  by  a  careful  induction  of  the  invari¬ 
able  laws  of  nature  from  the  history  of  the  past.  But  there  was 
nothing  supernatural  in  that.  Every  poet,  philosopher,  and  poli¬ 
tician  is  more  or  less  of  a  prophet.  Men  of  profound  genius  are 
rare  in  any  department  of  science,  and  ignorance  ascribes  to  super¬ 
natural  inspiration  the  sagacity  derived  from  extensive  observation; 
but  philosophy  traces  to  the  same  source  the  inspiration  of  Moses 
and  Solon,  of  Apollo  and  Ezekiel,  of  Newton  and  Napoleon.”  So 
says  the  modern  sceptic. 

This  prediction  of  Napoleon’s  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  oracles 
of  human  sagacity,  as  well  as  a  test  of  the  wisdom  of  those  philos¬ 
ophers  who  risk  their  eternal  destiny  on  the  sagacity  of  a  man 
ignorant  of  his  own  fate  one  week  ahead,  and  peril  their  souls  on 
the  chance  that,  ten  years  hence — when  the  affairs  of  Europe  may 
be  of  as  little  consequence  to  them  as  they  are  now  to  Napoleon — 
Europe  will  bring  forth  from  the  throes  of  revolution  either  a 
despotism  or  a  republic.  No  chance,  it  seems,  of  a  birth  of  twins 
falsifying  this  sage  prediction. 

Suppose,  however,  that  during  the  six  thousand  years  during 
which  statesmen  have  gambled  with  the  liberties  of  mankind,  as 
many  as  half-a-dozen  should  have  guessed  the  shape  of  some  com¬ 
ing  event  from  the  shadow  which  it  cast  before  it — as  Cayotte  is 
reported  to  have  predicted  the  fate  of  Charles  for  Louis  the  XVI., 
and  the  atrocities  of  the  Parisian  rabble  during  the  Reism  of 
Terror — what  then  ?  Is  such  a  guess  of  any  use  to  the  world  ? 
Does  it,  or  should  it,  command  any  respect  when  uttered  ?  Does 
9  129 


2 


PROPHECY. 


it  profess  to  come  from  the  Disposer  of  all  events,  as  his  seal 
authenticating  any  revelation  of  moral  duty  to  man  ? 

0  yes!  We  are  told  by  men  who  could  not  read  one  of  Apollo’s 
oracles  to  save  their  lives,  nor  recite  one  of  Isaiah’s  prophecies  to 
save  their  souls — Apollo’s  oracles  no  less  than  Isaiah’s  were  in¬ 
spired.  Could  such  persons  be  prevailed  upon  to  read  carefully 
any  single  prophetic  book  of  Scripture,  with  the  historic  facts  to 
which  it  refers,  or  even  the  briefest  abridgment  of  these  facts,  such 
as  that  contained  in  Scott’s,  or  the  Comprehensive  Commentary, 
they  would  not  thus  expose  their  ignorance  alike  of  heathen  and 
Christian  oracles. 

The  differences  between  them  are  too  numerous  to  be  easily 
enumerated.  The  oracles  of  the  heathen  are  always  sources  of 
gain  to  their  prophets.  The  ancient  Pythoness  must  have  a  heca¬ 
tomb,  the  writing  medium  a  dollar,  and  the  modern  Pythoness  of 
the  platform  a  dime.  But  under  the  inspiration  of  God  even  a 
Balaam  becomes  honest,  and  the  leprosy  of  Naaman  marks  the 
sordid  Gehazi  and  his  seed  for  ever. 

The  oracles  of  the  heathen  are  always  immoral  in  their  ten¬ 
dency.  From  the  first  spiritual  communication  through  the  ser¬ 
pent  medium  in  the  tree  of  knowledge,  down  to  the  last  spiritual 
marriage  rapped  out  by  the  oracle,  they  are  all  in  favor  of  pride, 
ambition,  lying,  lust,  and  murder.  The  oracles  of  God  begin  with 
a  prohibition  of  curiosity,  pride,  covetousness,  and  theft:  ‘‘In  the 
day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die.”  And  they  are  uni¬ 
formly  of  the  same  tenor,  forbidding,  reproving,  threatening  vice, 
and  encouraging  virtue,  down  to  the  last:  “Blessed  are  they  that 
do  his  commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life, 
and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city ;  for  without 
are  dogs,  and  sorcerers,  and  whoremongers,  and  murderers,  and 
idolaters,  and  whosoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie.” 

This  last  mark  of  falsehood  belongs  to  all  heathen  oracles,  from 
the  first  utterance  by  the  serpent  down  to  the  last  response  rapped 
out  by  the  medium.  Take  any  one  heathen  oracle  of  which  we 
have  any  definite  account— and  the  number  is  very  small — and 
you  will  find  that,  if  it  is  not  “  as  equivocal  as  Apollo,”  it  is  false. 
For  instance,  infidels  very  confidently  refer  to  the  augury  of  Vettius 
Valens,  that,  “if  it  be  true,  as  historians  say,  that  Romulus  saw 
twelve  vultures  at  the  founding  of  Rome,  that  signified  that  it 
should  exist  twelve  centuries.”  It  very  properly  begins  with  an  if, 
130 


PROPHECY. 


3 


for  the  story  of  Romulus  and  the  vultures  is  exceedingly  apocry¬ 
phal.  But  whether  the  story  be  false  or  no,  the  augury  certainly 
is.  If  it  refers  to  the  material  city  then  building,  it  was  false. 
Bren nus,  the  Gaul,  burned  it  to  the  ground  before  it  was  four 
centuries  old.  If  it  prophesied  the  permanence  of  the  political 
constitution,  every  school-boy  knows  that  within  twelve  centuries 
half  a  dozen  revolutions  falsified  the  augury.  If  it  referred  to  the 
ultimate  duration  of  the  city  of  that  name,  or  of  the  Roman  people, 
it  is  self-evidently  false ;  for  now,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-six 
centuries,  Rome  is  larger,  its  territory  wider,  and  its  people  more 
numerous,  than  for  centuries  after  Romulus  saw  the  twelve  vul¬ 
tures.  Yet  men  who  have  read  Roman  history  present  Vettius 
Yalens  as  a  prophet.  It  is  written,  “He  frustrateth  the  tokens  of 
the  liars.” 

But  it  is  objected  that  “the  prophecies  of  Scripture  are  as  obscure 
as  the  oracles  ;  are  all  wrapped  up  in  symbolical  language ;  that 
many  of  them  have  a  double  meaning;  that  no  two  interpreters 
are  agreed  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  unfulfilled  predictions;  and  that 
no  man  can  certainly  foretell  any  future  event  by  means  of  them.” 
The  objection  proceeds  on  a  total  mistake  of  the  nature  and  de¬ 
sign  of  prophecy,  which  is  not  to  unvail  the  future  for  the  grati¬ 
fication  of  your  curiosity,  but  to  give  you  direction  in  your  present 
duty — precisely  the  reverse  of  the  oracles  referred  to,  which  pro¬ 
posed  to  tell  their  votaries  what  would  happen — but  rarely  con¬ 
descended  to  direct  them  how  to  behave  themselves  so  that  things 
might  happen  well.  The  larger  part  of  the  prophecies  of  Scrip¬ 
ture  is  taken  up  with  directions  to  men  how  to  regulate  their  con¬ 
duct,  rather  than  with  information  how  God  means  to  regulate  his. 
There  is  just  as  much  of  the  latter  as  is  sufficient  to  show  us  that 
the  God  who  gave  the  Bible  governs  the  world,  and  even  that 
always  urges  the  same  moral  lesson:  “Say  ye  to  the  righteous  that 
it  shall  be  well  with  him,  for  he  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  his  doings/' 
“Woe  to  the  wicked ;  it  shall  be  ill  with  him,  for  the  reward  of 
his  hands  shall  be  given  him."  Whenever  a  vision  relates  to  what 
God  will  do  in  the  distant  future,  it  is  dark  and  mysterious;  but 
whenever  any  directions  are  given  necessary  for  our  immediate 
duty,  then  the  “vision  is  written  and  made  plain  on  tables,  that  he 
may  run  that  readeth  it.”  The  possessors  of  a  clearly  engrossed 
title-deed  have  surely  no  reason  to  complain  that  the  president  lias 
chosen  that  his  seal  appended  to  it  shall  consist  of  a  device,  which, 

131 


4 


PROPHECY. 


by  reason  of  its  being  hard  to  read  and  harder  to  imitate,  secures 
both  himself  and  them  against  forgery.  The  double  meaning  of 
some  prophecies  is  a  double  check.  So  far  from  resembling  the 
equivocations  of  heathen  oracles,  by  taking  either  of  two  opposite 
events  for  a  fulfilment,  they  require  both  of  two  corresponding 
ones ;  and  some  prophecies,  like  a  master  key,  open  several  succes¬ 
sive  events,  and  thus  show  that  the  same  mind  planned  both  locks 
and  key.  When  the  prediction  is  fulfilled  all  mystery  vanishes, 
and  men  see  plainly  that  thus  it  was  written — that  is  to  say,  men 
who  look — for  the  man  who  will  not  open  his  eyes  will  never  see 
any  thing  that  it  concerns  him  to  know.  But  the  man  who  thinks 
that  it  concerns  him  so  much  to  know  what  God  will  do  with  the 
world  a  hundred  years  after  he  is  dead,  that  unless  the  prophecies 
of  the  Bible  are  all  made  plain  to  him,  he  will  neither  read  God’s 
word  nor  obey  his  law,  may  go  on  his  own  way.  We  expound  no 
mysteries  to  such  persons;  for  it  is  written,  “None  of  the  wicked 
shall  understand.” 

As  to  the  objection  taken  from  the  symbolical  language  of 
prophecy,  and  which  seems  to  a  number  of  our  modern  critics  so 
weighty  that  they  remove  to  the  purely  mythologic  ground  every 
thing  “couched  in  sjunbolical  language,”  and  account  nothing  to 
be  prediction  unless  “literal  history  written  in  advance” — I  would 
merely  ask,  IIow  is  it  possible  to  reveal  heavenly  things  to  earth- 
born  men  but  by  earthly  figures?  Do  you  know  a  single  word  in 
your  own,  or  any  other  language  to  express  a  spiritual  state  or 
mental  operation,  that  is  not  the  name  of  some  material  state  or 
physical  operation,  used  symbolically  ?  Heart,  soul,  spirit,  idea, 
memory,  imagination,  inclination,  &c.,  every  one  of  them  a  figure 
of  speech — a  symbol.  Nay,  is  there  a  letter  in  your  own  or  in  any 
other  alphabet,  that  was  not  originally  a  picture  of  something? 
I  demand  to  know  in  what  way  God  or  man  could  teach  you  to 
know  anything  you  have  never  seen,  but  by  either  showing  you  a 
picture  of  it,  or  telling  you  what  it  is  like?  That  is  simply  by 
type  or  symbol ;  and  these  are  the  only  possible  media  of  convey¬ 
ing  heavenly  truth,  or  future  history  to  our  minds.  When,  there¬ 
fore,  the  sceptic  insists  that  prophecy  be  given  literally  in  the  style 
of  history  written  in  advance,  he  simply  requires  that  God  would 
make  it  utterly  unintelligible.  We  can  gather  clear  and  definite 
ideas  from  the  significant  hieroglyphics  of  symbolic  language,  but 
the  literalities  of  history  written  in  advance  would  be  worse  to 
132 


PROPHECY. 


5 


decipher  than  the  arrow-headed  inscriptions  of  Nineveh.  Just 
imagine  to  yourself  Alexander  the  Great  reading  Guizot,  instead 
of  Daniel;  or  Hildreth,  as  being  less  mysterious  than  Ezekiel;  and 
meeting,  for  instance,  such  a  record  as  this :  “  In  the  year  of 
Christ  I84T,  the  United  States  conquered  Mexico,  and  annexed 
California.”  “In  the  year  of  Christ — what  new  Olympiad  may 
that  be?”  he  would  say.  “The  United  States  of  course  means  the 
States  of  the  Achsen  League,  but  on  what  shore  of  the  Euxine  may 
Mexico  and  California  be  found?”  What  information  could  Aris¬ 
totle  gather  from  the  record  that,  “In  1857,  the  Transatlantic 
Telegraph  was  in  operation?”  Could  all  the  augurs  in  the  seven- 
hilled  city  have  expounded  to  Julius  Caesar  the  famous  despatch, 
if  intercepted  in  prophetic  vision,  “  Sebastopol  was  evacuated  last 
night,  after  enduring  for  three  days  an  infernal  fire  of  shot  and 
shell?”  Nay,  to  diminish  the  vista  to  even  two  or  three  centuries, 
what  could  Oliver  Cromwell,  aided  by  the  whole  Westminster 
Assembly,  have  made  of  a  prophetic  vision  of  a  single  newspaper 
paragraph  of  history  written  in  advance,  to  inform  them  that, 
“  Three  companies  of  dragoons  came  down  last  night  from  Ber¬ 
wick  to  Southampton,  by  a  special  train,  traveling  54|  miles  an 
hour,  including  stoppages,  and  embarked  immediately  on  arrival. 
The  fleet  put  to  sea  at  noon,  in  the  face  of  a  full  gale  from  the 
S.  W.?”  Why,  the  intelligible  part  of  this  single  paragraph  would 
seem  to  them  more  impossible,  and  the  unintelligible  part  more 
absurd,  than  all  the  mysterious  symbols  of  the  Apocalypse. 

The  world  has  accepted  God’s  symbols  thousands  of  years  ago, 
and  it  is  too  late  in  the  day  for  our  reformers  to  propose  new  laws 
of  thought  and  forms  of  speech,  to  the  human  race.  David’s  pro¬ 
phetic  lyrics,  and  Christ’s  lovely  parables,  Isaiah’s  celestial  anthems 
and  Ezekiel’s  glorious  symbols,  Solomon’s  terse  Proverbs,  will  be 
recited  and  admired,  ages  after  the  foggy  abstractions  of  mystified 
metaphysicians  have  vanished  from  the  earth.  The  Thirst  of  Pas¬ 
sion,  The  Cup  of  Pleasure,  The  Fountain  of  the  Water  of  Life,  The 
Blood  of  Murder,  the  Rod  of  Chastisement,  The  Iron  Scepter,  The 
Fire  of  Wrath,  The  Balance  of  Righteousness,  The  Sword  of  Justice, 
The  Wheels  of  Providence,  The  Conservative  Mountains,  and  The 
Raging  Seas  of  Anarchy,  The  Golden,  Brazen,  and  Iron  Ages,  will 
reflect  their  images  in  Truth’s  Mirror,  and  photograph  their  lessons 
on  Memory’s  Tablet,  while  the  mists  of  the  “positive  philosophy,” 
“  the  absolute,”  and  “  the  conditioned,”  float  past  unheeded,  to 
the  land  of  forgetfulness.  God’s  prophetic  symbols  are  the  glorious 

133 


6 


PROPHECY. 


embodiments  of  living  truths,  while  man’s  philosophic  abstractions 
are  the  melancholy  ghosts  of  expiring  nonsense. 

The  prophetic  symbols  are  sufficiently  plain  to  be  distinctly  in¬ 
telligible  after  the  fulfillment,  as  Ave  shall  presently  see;  suffi¬ 
ciently  obscure  to  baffle  presumptious  curiosity  before  it.  Had 
they  been  so  written  as  to  be  fully  intelligible  beforehand,  they 
must  have  interfered  with  man’s  free  agency,  by  causing  their 
own  fulfillment.  They  hide  the  future  sufficiently  to  make  man 
feel  his  ignorance;  they  reveal  enough  to  encourage  faith  in  the 
God  Avho  rules  it. 

The  revelation  of  future  events,  however,  is  not  the  principal 
design  of  the  prophecies  of  the  Bible;  they  bear  witness  to  God’s 
powerful  present  influence  over  the  world  now.  For  God’s  proph¬ 
ecy  is  not  merely  his  foretelling  something  which  will  certainly 
happen  at  some  future  time,  but  over  which  he  has  no  control — as 
an  astronomer  foretells  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  but  can  neither 
hasten  nor  hinder  it — but  it  is  his  revealing  of  a  part  of  his  plan 
of  this  Avorld’s  affairs,  to  show  that  God,  and  not  man,  is  the  sov¬ 
ereign  of  this  world.  For  this  purpose  he  tells  beforehand  the 
actions  which  wicked  men,  of  their  OAvn  free  will,  will  commit  con¬ 
trary  to  his  laAv,  and  the  measures  he  will  take  to  thwart  their  de¬ 
signs,  and  fulfill  his  own.  Nay,  he  declares  he  will  so  manage 
matters  that  without  their  knoAvledge,  and  even  contrary  to  their 
intentions,  heathen  armies  and  infidel  scoffers  shall  serve  his  pur¬ 
poses  and  show  his  poAver;  while  yet  they  are  as  perfectly  volun¬ 
tary  in  all  their  moATements  as  if  they,  and  not  God,  governed  the 
world.  Every  fulfilled  prophecy  thus  becomes  an  instance  and 
evidence  of  a  supernatural  government;  and  is  to  a  thinking  mind 
a  greater  miracle  than  casting  mountains  into  the  sea.  The  style 
of  prophecy  corresponds  to  this  design.  It  is  not  by  any  means 
apologetic  or  supplicating;  but,  on  the  contrary,  majestic,  con¬ 
vincing,  and  terrifying  to  the  ungodly. 

“  Remember  this  and  shore  yourselves  men. 

“  Bring  it  again  to  m  ind,  0  ye  transgressors. 

“  For  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else. 

“7  am  God,  and  there  is  none  like  me. 

“  Declaring  the  end  from  the  beginning, 

“  And  from  ancient  times  the  thinefs  that  are  not  yet  done, 

11  Saying,  ‘My  counsel  shall  stand,  and  I  avill  bo  all  my 

PLEASURE.”  * 


134 


*  Isaiah,  chap.  46 :  8-11. 


PROPHECY. 


T 


Infidels  feel  the  power  of  this  manifestation  of  God  in  his  word; 
and  are  driven  to  every  possible  denial  of  the  fact,  and  evasion  of 
the  argument  drawn  from  it.  They  feel  instinctively  that  Bible 
prophecies  are  far  more  than  mere  predictions.  They  would  rather 
endow  every  human  being  on  earth  with  the  power  of  predicting 
the  future  than  allow  the  God  of  heaven  that  power  of  ruling 
the  present  which  these  prophecies  assert.  Hence  the  attempt  to 
admit  their  predictive  .truth,  and  yet  deny  their  Divine  authority, 
by  ascribing  them  to  human  sagacity. 

Transatlantic  steam  navigation  has  produced  a  remarkable 
change  in  the  tone  of  infidel  writers  and  speakers  in  regard  to  the 
prophecies  of  the  Bible.  You  could  not  converse  long  with  an 
infidel  on  this  subject,  a  few  years  ago,  until  he  would  assure  you, 
with  all  confidence,  that  the  prophecies  were  all  written  after  their 
fulfillment,  and  so  were  not  prophecies  at  all.  But  now  that  trav¬ 
elers  of  all  classes,  scoffers,  sailors,  and  doctors  of  divinity,  scien¬ 
tific  expeditions,  and  correspondents  of  daily  newspapers,  have 
flooded  the  world  with  undeniable  attestations  that  many  of  them 
are  receiving  their  fulfillment  at  this  day,  none  but  the  most  grossly 
ignorant  and  stupid  attempt  to  deny  that  the  prophecies  of  the 
Bible  were  written  thousands  of  years  since,  and  that  many  of 
them  have  since  been  accomplished;  and  that  so  many  have  been 
fulfilled  that  their  accomplishment  cannot  be  ascribed  to  chance. 
But  the  force  of  the  argument  for  the  Divine  inspiration  of  the 
prophets  is  met  by  the  assertion  that  there  is  nothing  super¬ 
natural  in  prophecy,  and  that  it  is  only  one  form  of  the  inspiration 
of  genius. 

Calculating  securely  on  that  profound  ignorance  of  the  Bible 
which  characterizes  their  followers,  modern  writers  inform  them 
that  “none  of  the  prophets  ever  uttered  any  distinct,  definite, 
unambiguous  prediction  of  any  future  event  which  has  since  taken 
place,  which  a  man  without  a  miracle  could  not  equally  well  pre¬ 
dict.”  It  is  alleged  that  the  prophecies.,  in  predicting  the  over¬ 
throw  of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  predicted  nothing  beyond  the 
ken  of  human  sagacity,  enlightened  by  a  careful  study  of  the 
experience  of  the  past  and  the  invariable  laws  of  nature — that  it 
requires  no  inspiration  to  foretell  the  decay  of  perishing  things — 
that  the  invariable  progress  of  all  things,  empires  as  well  as  indi¬ 
viduals,  is  first  upward,  through  a  period  of  youthful  vigor  and 
energy,  then  onward  through  a  period  of  ripe  maturity,  and  then 

135 


8 


PROPHECY. 


downward,  through  a  gradual  decay  and  final  dissolution,  to  the 
inevitable  grave.  The  world's  history  is  but  a  history  of  the  decline 
and  fall  of  nations. 

I.  Now,  if  this  be  true,  it  is  an  awful  truth  for  the  infidel,  for 
it  siveeps  away  the  last  vestige  of  a  foundation  of  Ms  hope  for 
eternity.  The  only  reason  any  unbeliever  in  Revelation  could 
ever  give,  or  that  modern  spiritualists  do  give,  for  their  hope  of  a 
happy  eternity,  is  the  analogy  of  Nature-^-the  alleged  constant 
progress  of  all  things  toward  perfection  in  this  world.  It  is  an 
awkward  truth  that  individually  we  must  die  and  the  worms  crawl 
over  us ;  but  then  the  wretched  fate  of  the  individual  was  to  be 
compensated  by  the  glorious  progress  of  the  race  onward  and  ever 
onwards  and  upward — from  the  fungus  to  the  frog,  and  from  the 
frog  to  the  monkey,  from  the  monkey  to  the  man,  from  the  noble 
savage  wild  in  woods,  to  the  pastoral  tribe;  thence  to  the  empire 
and  the  federal  republic ;  and  finally  to  the  reign  of  individual 
and  passional  attraction,  and  union  with  the  sum  of  all  the  intel¬ 
ligences  of  the  universe,  through  a  constant  progress  towards 
infinite  perfection. 

But,  alas  1  it  seems  it  was  a  false  analogy,  an  ill- observed  fact, 
a  delusion  ;  the  course  of  nature  is  all  the  other  way.  The  ten¬ 
dency  of  all  perishing  things  is  not  to  perfection,  but  to  perdition  ; 
and  it  needs  no  inspiration  to  tell  that  man's  loftiest  towers  and 
strongest  cities  and  proudest  empires  will  come  to  ruin;  or  that 
the  most  polished,  powerful,  and  populous  nations  of  antiquity 
will  dwindle  down  into  Turks,  Moors,  and  Egyptians.  Here  is  a 
fact  of  awful  omen.  Death  reigns  in  this  world  of  ours — death 
moral,  social,  political,  and  physical,  has  ever  trampled  upon  man, 
proud  man,  learned  man,  civilized  man,  over  all  the  plans  of  man, 
over  every  man  and  over  every  association  of  men,  even  the 
largest,  the  wisest,  the  mightiest.  And  now  the  infidel,  having 
taken  away  our  hope  of  help  from  heaven,  comes  with  the  serpent’s 
hiss  and  fiendish  sneer  to  taunt  the  perishing  world  with  this 
miserable  truism — that  the  tendency  of  every  thing  on  earth  is  to 
perdition,  and  that  it  needs  no  inspiration  to  tell  it.  Truly  it  does 
not.  Mere  that  all  the  prophets  of  God  had  to  tell  us — as  it  is  all 
the  prophets  of  infidelity  can  prophecy — we  had  as  little  need  for 
the  one  as  for  the  other.  Earthquake  and  hurricane,  volcano  and 
valley  flood,  autumn  frosts  and  winter  blasts,  fever,  consumption, 
war,  and  pestilence,  the  grave-yard  and  the  charnel-house,  the 
136 


PROPHECY.  9 

Parthenon  and  the  Pyramids,  and  the  mounds  of  Mexico  and 
Assyria,  unite  to  attest  this  awful  doom. 

But  what  reason  has  the  skeptic  to  believe  that  this  invariable 
law  of  nature  shall  ever  be  repealed,  and  this  inevitable  progress 
of  all  things  to  perdition  be  arrested?  Why  may  not  men  be  as 
selfish  and  filthy,  and  grasping  and  murderous  in  the  other  world 
as  they  are  in  this?  Why  may  not  the  course  of  nature  be  as  fatal 
to  the  sinner's  prosperity  there,  as  it  is  here?  Why  may  not  the 
progress  of  the  proud  empires  and  spheres  of  futurity,  be  such  as 
the  skeptic  declares  the  progress  of  the  past  to  have  been,  so 
invariably  towards  dissolution  and  death,  that  it  shall  need  no 
inspiration  to  predict  its  course  downward,  downward,  ever  down¬ 
ward,  to  endless  perdition  ?  Stand  forward  skeptic,  and  point  the 
world  to  an  instance  in  which  an  ungodly  nation  has  stemmed  this 
all-destroying  torrent  of  ruin;  or  acknowledge  that  all  you  can 
promise  the  nations  of  the  world  to  come,  from  your  experience  of 
the  invariable  laws  of  nature,  is  perdition ,  endless  perdition. 

II.  It  is  manifest,  however,  that  this  destruction  of  nations  and 
desolation  of  empires  must  have  had  a  beginning  some  time  or 
other.  Nations  could  not  perish  before  they  had  grown,  nor  env 
pires  be  destroyed  till  they  had  accumulated ;  and  during  all  this 
period  of  their  growth  and  vigor,  the  experience  of  mankind  would 
never  lead  them  to  predict  their  ruin.  The  sagacious  observer, 
beholding  Babylon,  Nineveh,  Damascus,  and  Tyre,  growing  and 
flourishing  during  a  period  of  a  thousand  years  past,  would  have 
no  reason  from  such  an  experience  to  expect  any  thing  else  than  a 
thousand  years  of  prosperity  to  come.  Especially  impossible  is  it 
for  human  sagacity,  enlightened  by  experience,  to  predict  unex¬ 
ampled  desolations — destructions  such  as  the  world  had  never 
witnessed. 

Now  the  predictions  of  the  Bible  are  predictions  of  unexampled 
desolations,  and  unparalleled  ruin  of  empires.  The  desolation  of 
any  extensive  region  of  the  earth,  or  the  overthrow  of  any  great 
nation,  was  an  event  absolutely  unknown  to  the  world  when  the 
prophets  of  the  Bible  began  to  utter  their  predictions ;  unless  the 
skeptic  will  allow  the  truth  of  the  Bible  record  of  the  prediction 
and  execution  of  the  deluge,  and  the  destruction  of  Sodom.  War 
and  conquest  had  indeed  caused  some  provinces  to  change  masters; 
one  nation  had  made  marauding  invasions  on  others,  and  carried 

137 


10 


PROPHECY. 


off  cattle  and  slaves  ;  but  the  result  of  the  greatest  military  opera¬ 
tion  of  which  we  have  any  record,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
prophetic  era — the  conquest  of  Palestine  by  the  Israelites — so  far 
from  desolating  the  region,  or  exterminating  the  people,  had  been 
merely  to  increase  its  productiveness,  and  drive  its  former  occu¬ 
pants  to  new  settlements,  where  at  that  era  they  wTere  fully  able  to 
cope  with  their  former  conquerors.  Whatever  the  experience  of 
thirty  centuries  may  have  since  taught  the  nations  concerning  the 
certainty  of  the  connection  between  national  crime  and  national 
ruin,  a  long  suffering  God  had  not  then  given  any  such  signal 
examples  of  it,  as  those  of  which  he  gave  warning  by  the  prophets. 

The  course  of  the  nations  and  cities  founded  after  the  deluge  had 
been  regularly  onward  and  prosperous,  and  they  were  just  rising 
to  the  maturity  of  their  power  and  splendor  wdien  Jonah,  Micah, 
Hosea,  and  Isaiah,  began  to  pronounce  their  sentences.  They 
denounced  desolation  and  solitude  against  nations  more  populous 
than  this  continent,  one  of  whose  cities  enumerated  more  citizens 
than  some  of  our  proud  commonwealths,  and  displayed  buildings, 
a  sight  of  vrhose  crumbling  ruins  is  deemed  sufficient  recompense 
for  the  perils  of  a  journey  of  six  thousand  miles.  The  hundred 
churches  of  Cincinnati  could  all  have  been  conveniently  arranged 
in  the  basement  of  the  temple  of  Belus ;  on  the  first  floor  our 
hundred  thousand  non-church  going  citizens  might  have  assem¬ 
bled  to  listen  to  a  lecture  on  spiritualism  from  some  eloquent 
Chaldean  soothsayer ;  and  the  remaining  seven  stories  would  have 
still  been  open  for  the  accommodation  of  the  natives  of  the  original 
Queen  City.  Every  product  of  earth  wras  trafficked  in  the  markets 
of  Tyre — a  single  Jewish  house  imported  annually  more  gold  than 
all  the  banks  of  this  continent  possess — and  the  whole  coinage  of 
the  United  States  since  1793  would  want  a  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  of  the  value  of  the  golden  furniture  of  a  single  temple  in 
Babylon.  In  fact,  in  the  suburbs  of  Babylon  or  Nineveh,  Wash¬ 
ington  or  Cincinnati  would  have  been  insignificant  villages ;  and 
the  stone-fronted  brick  palaces  of  Broadway  and  the  Fifth  Avenue, 
would  make  passable  stables  and  haylofts  for  the  mansions  of 
Thebes  or  Petra. 

So  far,  therefore,  from  being  the  teaching  of  experience,  the  cal¬ 
culation  of  sagacity,  there  was  nothing  more  utterly  unexampled 
and  unparalleled  than  the  complete  desolation  of  any  nation  at  the 
138 


PROPHECY. 


11 


time  the  prophets  of  Israel  predicted  such  things.  If  the  world 
has  grown  wiser  since  regarding  the  decline  and  fall  of  empires,  it 
has  gathered  the  best  part  of  its  sagacity  from  the  prophecies. 

III.  The  prophecies  of  the  Bible  are  not  vague  general  denun¬ 
ciations  of  natural  decline  and  extinction  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  which,  if  they  were  merely  the  exposition  of  a  universal 
natural  law  of  national  death,  they  would  be — nor  yet  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  any  such  natural  and  inevitable  law  to  some  particular 
nation,  denouncing  its  destruction,  without  any  specification  of 
time,  manner,  instrument,  or  cause  of  its  infliction.  They  are  all 
the  applications  of  moral  law — sentences  pronounced  on  account 
of  national  wickedness.  In  every  case  the  prophecy  charges  the 
crimes,  and  specifies  the  punishment  selected  by  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth.  The  nations  selected  as  examples  of  Divine  justice  are 
as  various  as  their  sentences  are  different — covering  a  space  as 
long  as  from  Eastport  to  San  Francisco,  and  climes  as  various  as 
those  between  Canada  and  Cuba;  peopled  by  men  of  every  shade 
of  color  and  degree  of  capacity,  from  the  negro  servant  of  servants, 
to  the  builders  of  the  Colosseum  and  the  pyramids.  They  minutely 
describe,  in  their  own  expressive  symbols,  the  nations  yet  unfounded 
and  kings  unborn,  who  should  ignorantly  execute  the  judgments 
of  the  Lord.  They  predict  the  futures  of  over  thirty  states — no  two 
of  which  are  alike,  each  prediction  embracing  a  large  number  of 
minute  particulars,  any  one  of  which  was  utterly  beyond  the  range 
of  human  sagacity.  To  predict  that  a  man  will  die  may  require 
no  great  sagacity,  but  to  tell  the  year  of  his  death,  that  he  will  die 
as  a  criminal,  allege  the  crime  for  which  he  will  be  sentenced,  the 
time,  place,  and  manner  of  his  execution,  and  the  name  of  the 
sheriff  who  will  execute  the  sentence,  is  plainly  beyond  the  skill 
of  man.  Such  is  the  character  of  Bible  predictions.  ZedekialFs 
sentence  was  thus  pronounced ;  and  thus,  too,  the  sentences  of 
nations  doomed  to  ruin  for  their  crimes  are  recorded  in  the  Bible, 
that  men  may  know  that  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  them. 
If,  for  instance,  a  prophet  should  declare  that  New  York  should  be 
overturned,  and  become  a  little  fishing  village,  and  that  her  stones 
and  timber,  and  her  very  dust,  should  be  scraped  off  and  thrown 
into  the  East  River — that  Philadelphia  should  become  a  swamp, 
and  never  be  inhabited,  from  generation  to  generation — that  Co¬ 
lumbus  should  be  deserted,  and  become  a  hog-pen — that  Louisville 
should  become  a  dry,  barren  desert,  and  Now  Orleans  be  utterly 

139 


12 


PROPHECY. 


consumed  with  fire,  and  never  be  built  again — that  learning  should 
depart  from  Boston,  and  no  travelers  ever  pass  through  it  any 
more — that  New  England  should  become  the  basest  of  the  nations, 
and  no  native  American  ever  be  President  of  the  Union,  but  that 
it  should  be  a  spoil  and  a  prey  to  the  most  savage  tribes,  and  that 
the  Bussians  should  tread  Washington  under  foot  for  a  thousand 
years,  but  that  God  would  preserve  Pittsburg  in  the  midst  of 
destruction — and  if  all  these  things  should  come  to  pass,  would 
any  man  dare  to  deny  that  the  prophet  spake  not  the  dictates  of 
human  sagacity,  or  the  calculations  of  genius,  but  the  words  of 
God? 

To  attempt  to  illustrate  the  Divine  wisdom  displayed  in  a  system 
of  connected  predictions,  covering  the  destiny  of  the  nations  of  the 
world,  and  extending  from  the  dawn  of  history  to  the  end  of  time, 
by  presenting  two  or  three  instances  of  the  fulfillment  of  specific 
predictions,  would  be  something  like  exhibiting  a  fragment  of  a 
column  as  a  monument  of  the  skill  of  the  architect  of  a  temple  ; 
yet,  as  such  a  fragment  may  excite  the  curiosity  of  the  traveler  to 
visit  the  structure  whence  it  was  taken,  I  shall  present  two  or  three 
prophecies  in  which  specific  predictions  are  given,  concerning  the 
geographical ,  political,  social,  and  religious  condition  of  three  of  the 
great  nations  of  antiquity — Egypt,  Judea,  and  Babylon — the  ful¬ 
filment  of  which  is  spread  over  the  surface  of  empires  and  the 
ruins  of  cities,  patent  to  all  travelers  at  the  present  hour,  and 
abundantly  attested  in  hundreds  of  volumes.  An  interesting  col¬ 
lection  of  such  testimonies  will  be  found  in  Keith  on  the  Prophecies ; 
while  the  curious  in  history  will  find  an  invaluable  collection  of 
extracts  from  authentic  historians,  illustrating  the  specific  fulfill¬ 
ment  of  prophecy  in  the  past,  in  Newton  on  the  Prophecies.  I  do 
earnestly  hope  hundreds  of  my  young  readers  will  purchase  and 
peruse  both  these  volumes. 

Could  human  sagacity  have  calculated  that  Egypt — the  most 
defensible  country  in  the  world,  bounded  on  the  south  by  inacces¬ 
sible  mountains,  on  the  east  by  the  Bed  Sea,  on  the  west  by  the 
trackless,  burning  desert;  able  to  defend  the  mouths  of  her  river 
with  a  powerful  navy,  and  to  drown  an  invading  army  every  year 
by  the  inundation  of  the  Nile ;  'which  had  not  only  maintained  her 
independence,  but  extended  her  conquests  for  a  thousand  years 
past — Egypt,  which  had  given  learning,  arts,  sciences,  and  idolatry 
to  half  the  world,  and  which  had  not  risen  to  the  hight  of  its  fame 
140 


PROPHECY. 


13 


or  the  extent  of  its  influence  for  twenty-five  years  after  the  pre¬ 
diction — should  be  invaded,  conquered,  spoiled,  become  a  prey  to 
strangers  and  evermore  to  strangers,  never  have  a  native  prince, 
sink  into  barbarism,  renounce  idolatry,  and  become  famous  for  her 
desolations?  Yet  the  Bible  predictions  are  specific  on  all  these 
matters:  “/  will  make  the  rivers  dry ,  and  sell  the  land  into  the  hand 
of  the  wicked;  and  I  will  make  the  land  waste,  and  all  that  is  therein 
by  the  hand  of  strangers .  I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it.  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  God ,  I  will  also  destroy  the  idols,  and  I  will  cause  the  im¬ 
ages  to  cease  out  of  Noph ,  and  there  shall  be  no  more  a  prince  of  the 
land,  of  Egypt* 

Let  infidels  read  the  fulfillment  of  these  predictions:  “Such  is 
the  state  of  Egypt.  Deprived  twenty-three  centuries  ago  of  her 
natural  proprietors,  she  has  seen  her  fertile  fields  successively  a 
prey  to  the  Persians,  the  Macedonians,  the  Romans,  the  Greeks, 
the  Arabs,  the  Georgians,  and  at  length  the  race  of  Tartars  distin¬ 
guished  by  the  name  of  the  Ottoman  Turks.  The  Mamelukes, 
purchased  as  slaves  and  introduced  as  soldiers,  soon  usurped  the 
power  and  selected  a  leader.  If  their  first  establishment  was  a 
singular  event,  their  continuance  is  not  less  extraordinary;  they 
are  replaced  by  slaves  brought  from  their  original  country. f  Says 
Gibbon:  “A  more  unjust  and  absurd  constitution  can  not  be 
devised  than  that  which  condemns  the  natives  of  the  country  to 
perpetual  servitude  under  the  arbitrary  dominion  of  strangers  and 
slaves.  Yet  such  has  been  the  state  of  Egypt  above  five  hundred 
years.  The  most  illustrious  sultans  of  the  Baharite  and  Beyite 
dynasties  were  themselves  promoted  from  the  Tartar  and  Circassian 
bands;  and  the  four  and  twenty  beys,  or  military  chiefs,  have  ever 
been  succeeded,  not  by  their  sons,  but  by  their  servants.”  $  Me- 
hemet  Ali  cut  off  the  Mamelukes,  but  still  Egypt  is  ruled  by  the 
Turks,  and  the  present  ruler  (Ibrahim  Pasha)  is  a  foreigner.  It  is 
needless  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  idols  are  cut  off.  Neither 
the  nominal  Christians  of  Egypt,  nor  the  iconoclastic  Moslem, 
allow  images  to  appear  among  them.  The  rivers,  too,  are  drying 
up.  In  one  day’s  travel  forty  dry  water-courses  will  be  crossed  in 
the  Delta;  and  water-skins  are  needed  now  around  the  ruined  cities 
whose  walls  were  blockaded  by  Greek  and  Roman  navies. 


*  Ezekiel,  chap.  xxx. 
f  Volney’s  Travels,  1,  74,  103. 


J  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  lix. 

141 


14 


PROPHECY. 


“It  shall  he  the  basest  of  the  kingdoms,  neither  shall  it  exalt  itself 
any  more  above  the  nations,  for  I  will  diminish  them  that  they  shall 
no  more  bear  rule  over  the  nations.”  *  Every  traveler  will  attest  the 
truth  of  this  prediction.  The  wretched  peasantry  are  rejoiced  to 
labor  for  any  who  will  pay  them  five  cents  a  day,  and  eager  to  hide 
the  treasure  in  the  ground  from  the  rapacious  tax-gatherer.  I  have 
seen  British  horses  refuse  to  eat  the  meal  ground  from  the  mixture 
of  wheat,  barley,  oats,  lentiles,  millet,  and  a  hundred  unknown 
seeds  of  weeds  and  collections  of  filth,  which  forms  the  produce  of 
their  fields.  For  poverty,  vermin,  and  disease,  Egypt  is  proverbial. 
Let  us  hear  a  scoffer’s  testimony,  however:  “In  Egypt  there  is  no 
middle  class,  neither  nobility,  clergy,  merchants,  nor  landholders. 
A  universal  air  of  misery  in  all  the  traveler  meets  points  out  to 
him  the  rapacity  of  oppression,  and  the  distrust  attendant  upon 
slavery.  The  profound  ignorance  of  the  inhabitants  equally  pre¬ 
vents  them  from  perceiving  the  causes  of  their  evils,  or  applying 
the  necessary  remedies.  Ignorance,  diffused  through  every  class, 
extends  its  effects  to  every  species  of  moral  and  physical  know¬ 
ledge.  Nothing  is  talked  of  but  intestine  troubles,  the  public 
misery,  pecuniary  extortions,  and  bastinadoes.”  + 

Here,  then,  we  have  conclusive  proof  of  the  fulfillment  at  this 
day  of  four  distinct,  specific,  and  improbable  Bible  predictions: 
concerning  the  country — the  rulers — the  religion — and  the  people 
of  Egypt. 

Let  us  note  now  a  distinct  and  totally  different  judgment  pro¬ 
nounced  against  the  transgressors  of  another  land.  Pre-eminent 
in  inflicting  destruction  on  others,  her  retribution  Avas  to  be  ex¬ 
treme.  Degradation  and  slavery  were  to  be  the  portion  of  the 
learned  Egyptians,  but  utter  extinction  is  the  doom  of  mighty 
Babylon.  It  is  written  in  the  Bible  concerning  the  land  where  the 
farmer  was  accustomed  to  reap  two  hundred  fold:  “Cut  off  the 
sower  from  Babylon,  and  him  that  handlefh  the  sickle  in  the  time 
of  harvest.  Every  purpose  of  the  Lord  shall  be  performed  against 
Babylon,  to  make  the  land  of  Babylon  a  desolation  without  an  in¬ 
habitant.  Behold  the  hindermost  of  the  nations  shall  be  a  dry  land 
and  a  desert.  Because  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  it  shall  not  be  in¬ 
habited,  but  it  shall  be  wholly  desolale.% 


*  Ezekiel,  chap.  xxix.  J  Jeremiah,  chap.  50  and  51. 

f  Volney,  1. 190.  * 

142 


PROPHECY. 


15 


Proofs  in  abundance  of  the  fulfillment  of  these  predictions  pre¬ 
sent  themselves  in  every  volume  of  travels  in  Assyria  and  Chaldea. 
“  Those  splendid  accounts  of  the  Babylonian  lands  yielding  crops 
of  grain  of  two  and  three  hundred  fold,  compared  with  the  modern 
face  of  the  country,  afford  a  remarkable  proof  of  the  singular  deso¬ 
lation  to  which  it  has  been  subjected.  The  canals  at  present  can 
only  be  traced  by  their  decayed  banks.  The  soil  of  this  desert 
consists  of  a  hard  clay,  mixed  with  mud,  which  at  noon  becomes 
so  heated  with  the  sun’s  rays,  that  I  found  it  too  hot  to  walk  over  it 
with  any  degree  of  comfort.”  *  “  That  it  was  at  some  former 

period  in  a  far  different  state  is  evident  from  the  number  of  canals 
by  which  it  is  traversed,  now  dry  and  neglected;  and  the  quantity 
of  heaps  of  earth,  covered  with  fragments  of  brick  and  broken 
tiles,  which  are  seen  in  every  direction — the  indisputable  traces 
of  former  cultivation. f  “The  abundance  of  the  country  has 
vanished  as  clean  away  as  if  the  besom  of  desolation  had  swept  it 
from  north  to  south ;  the  whole  land,  from  the  outskirts  of  Babylon 
to  the  farthest  stretch  of  sight,  lying  a  melancholy  waste.  Not  a 
habitable  spot  appears  for  countless  miles.  J 

As  the  desolation  of  the  country  was  to  be  extraordinary,  so  the 
desolation  of  the  city  of  Babylon  was  to  be  remarkable.  When  the 
prophet  wrote,  its  walls  had  been  raised  to  the  hight  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  made  broad  enough  for  six  chariots  to 
drive  upon  them  abreast.  From  its  hundred  brazen  gates  issued 
the  armies  which  trampled  under  foot  the  liberties  of  mankind,  and 
presented  their  lives  to  the  nod  of  a  despot,  who  slew  whom  ho 
would,  and  whom  he  would  allowed  to  live.  Twenty  years’  pro¬ 
visions  were  collected  within  its  walls,  and  the  world  would  not 
believe  that  an  enemy  could  enter  its  gates.  Nevertheless  the 
prophets  of  God  pronounced  against  it  a  doom  of  destruction  as 
extraordinary  as  the  pride  and  wickedness  which  procured  it. 
Tyre,  the  London  of  Asia,  was  to  become  a  place  for  the  spreading 
of  nets ,  $  and  the  infidel  Volney  tells  us  its  commerce  has  declined 
to  a  trifling  flsherg ;  but  even  that  implies  some  few  resident 
inhabitants.  Babbah,  of  Ammon,  was  to  become  a  stable  for 
camels  and  a  couching  place  for  flocks.  ||  Lord  Lindsay  reports 
that  “he  could  not  sleep  amidst  its  ruins  for  the  bleating  of  sheep, 

§  Ezekiel,  chap.  2G. 

U  Ezekiel,  chap.  25. 


*  Mignon’s  Travels,  31. 
f  Trans.  Bombay  Lit.  Soc.,  i.  123. 
t  Porter’s  Babylonia,  ii.  285. 


143 


16 


PROPHECY. 


that  the  dang  of  camels  covers  the  ruins  of  its  palaces,  and  that 
the  only  building  left  entire  in  its  Acropolis  is  used  as  a  sheep- 
fold/’  *  Yet  sheepfolds  imply  that  the  tents  of  their  Arab  owners 
are  near,  and  that  some  human  beings  would  occasionally  reside 
near  its  ruins.  But  desolation,  solitude,  and  utter  abandonment 
to  the  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  is  the  specific  and  clearly  predicted 
doom  of -the  world’s  proud  capital.  The  most  expressive  symbols 
are  selected  from  the  desert  to  portray  its  desertion. 

“ Babylon ,  the  (jlonj  of  the  kingdoms ,  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldees’ 
excellency ,  shall  be  as  when  God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 
It  shall  never  be  inhabited,  nor  dwelt  in,  from  generation  to  gener¬ 
ation.  Neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there;  neither  shall 
shepherds  make  their  folds  there;  but  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall 
be  there,  and  their  houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  creatures;  and 
owls  shall  dwell  there,  and  satyrs  shall  dance  there;  and  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  islands  shall  cry  in  their  desolate  houses,  and  dragons 
in  their  pleasant  places.”  j- 

Every  traveler  attests  the  fulfillment  of  this  strange  prediction. 
“It  is  a  tenantless  and  desolate  metropolis,”  says  Mignon,  who, 
though  fully  armed,  and  attended  by  six  Arabs,  could  not  induce 
them  by  any  reward  to  pass  the  night  among  its  ruins,  from 
their  apprehension  of  evil  spirits.  So  completely  fulfilled  is  the 
prophecy,  “  The  Arabian  shall  not  pitch  his  tent  there.”  The  same 
voice  which  called  camels  and  flocks  to  the  palaces  of  Kabbah, 
summoned  a  very  different  class  of  tenants  for  the  palaces  of 
Babylon.  Kabbah  was  to  be  a  sheepfold,  Babylon  a  menagerie  of 
wild  beasts — a  very  specific  difference,  and  very  improbable.  One 
of  the  later  Persian  kings,  however,  after  it  was  destroyed  and 
deserted,  repaired  its  walls,  converted  it  into  a  vast  hunting- 
ground,  and  stocked  it  with  all  manner  of  wild  beasts;  and  to  this 
day  the  apes  of  the  Spice  Islands,  and  the  lions  of  the  African 
deserts  meet  in  its  palaces,  and  howl  their  testimony  to  the  truth 
of  God’s  word.  Sir  K.  K.  Porter  saw  two  majestic  lions  in  the 
Mujelibe,  (the  ruins  of  the  palace,)  and  Fraser  thus  describes  the 
chambers  of  fallen  Babylon:  “There  were  dens  of  wild  beasts  in 
various  places,  and  Mr.  Kich  perceived  in  some  a  strong  smell,  like 
that  of  a  lion.  Bones  of  sheep  and  other  animals  were  seen  in  the 
cavities,  with  numbers  of  bats  and  owls.” 


*  Lindsay’s  Travels,  ii.  78,  117. 

144 


f  Isaiah,  chap.  13. 


PROPHECY. 


17 

“/  will  make 


Various  destructions  were  predicted  for  Babylon. 
it  a  habitation  for  the  bittern ,  and  pools  of  water,”*  says  one  pro¬ 
phecy.  “  Tier  cities  are  a  desolation,  a  dry  land,,  and  a  wilder - 
ness,” t  says  another.  How  can  such  contradictions  be  true?  says 
the  scoffer. 

But  the  scoffer’s  contradiction  is  a  fact.  God  can  cause  the  most 
discordant  agencies  to  agree  in  effecting  his  purpose.  Babylon  is 
alternately  an  overflowed  swamp  from  the  inundations  of  the 
obstructed  Euphrates,  and  an  arid  desert  under  the  scorching  rays 
of  an  eastern  sun.  Says  Mignon  :  “Morasses  and  ponds  tracked 
the  ground  in  various  places.  For  a  long  time  after  the  subsiding 
of  the  Euphrates  great  part  of  this  place  is  little  better  than  a 
swamp.”  At  another  season  it  was  “  a  dry  waste  and  burning 
plain.”  Even  at  the  same  period,  “one  part  on  the  western  side 
is  low  and  marshy,  and  another  an  arid  desert.”  $ 

Another,  and  widely  different  agent,  to  be  employed  in  the 
destruction  of  the  great  center  of  tyranny  arid  idolatry,  is  thus 
specifically  and  definitely  indicated  in  the  prediction:  “ Behold  I 
am  against  thee,  O  destroying  mountain ,  that  destroyest  all  the 
earth  ;  and  I  will  stretch  out  my  hand  against  thee,  and  roll  thee 
down  from  the  7'Ocks,  and  make  of  thee  a  burnt  mountain;  and  they 
shall  not  take  of  thee  a  stone  for  a  corner,  or  a  stone  for  founda¬ 
tions,  but  thou  shalt  be  desolate  for  ever,  saith  the  Lord  ”  || 

“There  is  one  fact,”  says  Fraser,  “in  connection  with  the  most 
remarkable  of  these  relics,  (the  Birs  Nimrod,)  which  wo  can  not 
dismiss  without  a  few  more  observations.  All  travelers  who  have 
ascended  the  Birs  have  taken  notice  of  the  singular  heaps  of  brick¬ 
work  scattered  on  the  summit  of  this  mound,  at  the  foot  of  the 
remnant  of  the  wall  still  standing.  To  the  writer  they  appeared 
the  most  striking  of  all  the  ruins.  That  they  have  undergone  the 
most  violent  action  of  fire  is  evident  from  the  complete  vitrification 
which  has  taken  place  in  many  of  the  masses.  Yet  how  a  heat 
sufficient  to  produce  such  an  effect  could  have  been  applied  at  such 
a  hight  from  the  ground  is  unaccountable.  They  now  lie  on  a 
spot  elevated  two  hundred  feet  above  the  plain,  and  must  have 
fallen  from  some  much  more  lofty  position,  for  the  structure  which 
still  remains,  and  of  which  they  may  be  supposed  originally  to  have 
formed  a  part,  bears  no  marks  of  fire.  The  building  originally 

*  Isaiah,  chap.  14.  J  Jeremiah,  chaps.  60  and  51.  |j  Jeremiah,  chap.  5L 

■j-  Jeremiah,  chap.  51.  §  Mignon,  139. 

10 


145 


18 


PROPHECY. 


can  not  have  contained  any  great  proportion  of  combustible  ma¬ 
terials,  and  to  produce  so  intense  a  heat  by  substances  carried  to 
such  an  elevation,  would  have  been  almost  impossible,  for  want  of 
space  to  pile  them  on.  Nothing,  we  should  be  inclined  to  say, 
short  of  the  most  powerful  action  of  electric  fire,  could  have  pro¬ 
duced  the  complete,  yet  circumscribed  fusion  which  is  here 
observed.  Although  fused  into  a  solid  mass,  the  courses  of  brick  a 
are  still  visible,  identifying  them  with  the  standing  pile  above,  but 
so  hardened  by  the  power  of  heat,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
break  off  the  smallest  piece;  and,  though  porous  in  texture,  and 
full  of  air-holes  and  cavities,  like  other  bricks,  they  require,  on 
being  submitted  to  the  stone-cutter’s  lathe,  the  same  machinery  aa 
is  used  to  dress  the  hardest  pebbles.”  * 

Egypt  was  to  be  reduced  to  slavery  and  degradation,  Babylonia 
to  utter  barrenness  and  desolation;  but  a  different  and  still  more 
incredible  doom  is  pronounced  in  the  Bible  upon  Judea  and  its 
people.  The  land  was  to  be  emptied  of  its  people,  and  remain 
uncultivated,  retaining  all  its  former  fertility,  while  the  people 
were  to  be  scattered  over  all  the  earth,  yet  never  to  lose  their  dis¬ 
tinct  nationality,  nor  be  amalgamated  with  their  neighbors  :  “I will 
make  your  cities  ivaste ,  and  bring  your  sanctuaries  into  desolation ; 
and  I  will  bring  the  land  unto  desolation,  and  your  enemies  which 
dwell  therein  shall  he  astonished  at  it.  And  I  will  scatter  you  among 
the  heathen,  and  will  draw  out  a  sword  after  you,  and  your  land  shall 
he  desolate  and  your  cities  waste.  Then  shall  the  land  enjoy  her  Sab - 
haths  as  long  as  it  lieth  desolate,  and  ye  he  in  your  enemies’  land,  even 
theiTshall  the  land  rest,  and  enjoy  her  Sahhaths.  f  Until  the  cities 
he  wasted  without  inhabitant,  and,  the  houses  without  man,  and  the 
land  he  utterly  desolate,  and  the  Lord  have  removed  men  far  away, 
and  there  he  a  great  forsaking  in  the  midst  of  the  land.  But  yet 
in  it  shall  he  a  tenth,  and  it  shall  return  and  shall  he  eaten,  as  a  teil 
tree  and  as  an  oak,  whose  substance  is  in  them  when  they  cast  their 
leaves.  %  The  generation  to  come  of  your  children,  and  the 
stranger  from  a  far  land,  shall  say,  1  Wherefore  hath  the  Lord 
done  thus  to  this  land?  What  meaneth  the  heat  of  this  great 
anger?’  ”  § 

It  is  superfluous  to  adduce  proof  of  the  undeniable  and  acknowl¬ 
edged  fulfillment  of  these  predictions,  but  as  an  example  of  the 

*  Fraser’s  Mesopotamia  and  Assyria,  145.  J  Isaiah,  chap.  6. 

t  Leviticus,  chap.  20.  \  Deuteronomy,  chap.  29. 

146 


PROPHECY. 


19 


way  in  which  God  causes  scoffers  to  fulfil  the  prophecies,  let  us 
again  hear  Yolney :  “I  journeyed  in  the  empire  of  the  Ottomans, 
and  traversed  the  provinces  which  were  formerly  the  kingdoms 
of  Egypt  and  Syria.  I  enumerated  the  kingdoms  of  Damascus 
and  Idumea,  of  Jerusalem  and  Samaria.  This  Syria,  said  I  to 
myself,  now  almost  depopulated,  then  contained  a  hundred  flourish¬ 
ing  cities,  and  abounded  with  towns,  villages,  and  hamlets.  What 
has  become  of  so  many  productions  of  the  hand  of  man?  What 
has  become  of  those  ages  of  abundance  and  of  life?  Great  God! 
from  whence  proceed  such  melancholy  revolutions  ?  For^what  cause 
is  the  fortune  of  these  countries  so  strikingly  changed?  Why  are 
so  many  cities  destroyed?  Why  is  not  that  ancient  population 
reproduced  and  perpetuated?  A  mysterious  God  exercises  his 
incomprehensible  judgments.  He  has  doubtless  pronounced  a 
secret  malediction  against  the  earth.  He  has  struck  with  a  curse 
the  present  race  of  men  in  revenge  of  past  generations/7  *  The 
malediction  is  no  secret  to  any  who  will  read  the  twenty-ninth 
chapter  of  Deuteronomy;  nor  is  the  avenging  of  the  quarrel  of 
God’s  covenant  confined  to  the  sins  of  past  generations.  The 
philosopher  who  would  understand  the  fates  of  cities  and  empires, 
should  read  the  prophecies. 

The  word  of  God  specifies  no  less  distinctly  and  definitely  the 
destiny  of  the  Jewish  than  of  the  Babylonian  capital,  but  fixes  on 
a  widely  different  kind  of  destruction.  Babylon  was  never  to  be 
built  again,  but  devoted  to  solitude — busy  Tyre  to  become  a  place 
for  spreading  nets — the  caravans,  which  once  brought  the  wealth 
of  India  through  Petra  were  to  cease,  and  the  doom  was  to  “  cut 
off  him  that  passeth  by  and  him  that  returneth.”  But  Jerusalem, 
it  was  predicted,  should  long  feel  the  miseries  of  a  multitude  of 
oppressors,  should  never  enjoy  the  luxury  of  solitary  woe,  but  “be 
trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  f  Saracens,  Tartars,  Turks,  and 
Crusaders,  Gentiles  from  every  nation  of  the  earth,  fulfilled  the 
prediction  of  old,  even  as  hosts  of  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the 
earth  do  at  this  day. 

So  minute  and  specific  are  the  predictions  of  Scripture,  that  the 
fate  of  particular  buildings  is  accurately  defined.  One  temple  to 
the  living  God,  and  only  one,  raised  its  walls  in  this  world,  which 
he  had  made  for  his  worship.  Its  frequenters  perverted  it  from  its 


147 


*  Yolney’s  Ruins  of  Empires,  Book  I. 


f  Luke,  chap.  21. 


20 


PROPHECY. 


proper  use  of  lending  them  to  confess  their  sinfulness,  seek  pardon 
through  the  promised  Savior  to  whom  its  ceremonies  pointed,  and 
learn  to  he  holy,  as  the  God  of  that  temple  was  holy.  They  hoped 
that  the  holiness  of  the  place  would  screen  them  in  the  indulgence 
of  pride,  formality,  and  wickedness.  The  temple  of  the  Lord, 
instead  of  the  Lord  of  the  temple,  was  the  object  of  their  vener¬ 
ation.  But  the  doom  went  forth,  “  Therefore  for  your  sakes  shall 
Zion  be  plowed  as  a  field ,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become  as  heaps , 
and  the  mountain  of  the  house  like  the  high  places  of  the  forest ”  * 
History  lias  preserved,  and  the  Jews  to  this  day  curse,  the  name  of 
the  soldier,  Terentius  Rufus,  who  plowed  up  the  foundations  of  the 
temple.  It  long  continued  in  this  state.  But  the  emperor  Julian 
the  Apostate  conceived  the  idea  of  falsifying  the  prediction  of 
Jesus,  “ Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate,”  f  and  sent  his 
friend  Alypius  with  a  Roman  army  and  abundant  treasure,  to 
rebuild  it.  The  Jews  flocked  from  all  parts  to  assist  in  the  work. 
Spades  or  pickaxes  of  silver  were  provided  by  the  vanity  of  the 
rich,  and  the  rubbish  was  transported  in  mantles  of  silk  and 
purple.  But  they  were  obliged  to  desist  from  the  attempt,  for 
“  horrible  balls  of  lire  breaking  out  from  the  foundations  with 
repeated  attacks,  rendered  the  place  inaccessible  to  the  scorched 
workmen,  and  the  element  driving  them  to  a  distance  from  time  to 
time,  the  enterprise  was  dropped.”  J  Such  is  the  testimony  of  a 
heathen,  confirmed  by  Jews  and  Christians.  The  enclosures  of  the 
mosque  of  Omar  forbidding  them  all  access  to  the  spot  on  which  it 
stood,  leave  it  desolate  to  the  Jews  to  this  day. 

IV.  No  sane  man  can  believe  that  such  minute  and  accurate 
predictions  of  various  and  improbable  events,  could  be  the  result 
of  human  calculations  ;  yet  there  is  another  feature  of  the  Bible 
prophecies  still  farther  removed  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
sagacity,  and  that  is  remarkable  and  unaccountable  preservation 
amidst  the  general  ruin.  If,  as  skeptics  allege,  destruction  is  the 
natural  and  inevitable  doom,  then  preservation  is  supernatural  and 
miraculous — a  miracle  of  Divine  power  controlling  nature ;  and 
its  prediction  is  a  miracle  of  Divine  wisdom.  Now  the  prophecies 
of  the  Bible  contain  several  very  definite,  and  widely  different  pre¬ 
dictions  of  the  preservation  of  people  and  cities  from  the  general 
destruction.  We  shall  refer  in  this  case  also  to  those  of  whose  ful- 


*  Micah,  chap.  3. 
f  Matthew,  chap.  23. 

148 


J  Ammian  Marcell.  lib.  23,  chap.  1 


PROPHECY.  21 

fillment  there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt,  for  the  facts  are  palpable 
and  undeniable  at  the  present  day. 

Of  the  Israelitish  nation  God  predicted,  that  it  should  be  a 
peculiar,  distinct  people,  separate  from  the  other  nations  of  the 
world :  “Lo  the  people  shall  dwell  alone ,  and  shall  not  he  reckoned 
among  the  nations.”  *  In  apparent  contradiction  to  this  separation, 
he  further  threatened  to  punish  them  for  their  sins,  by  dispersing 
them  over  the  world:  uIwill  scatter  you  among  the  heathen ,  and 
will  draw  out  a  sicord  after  you.  f  For  lo,  I  will  command,  and  I 
will  sift  the  house  of  Israel  among  all  nations,  like  as  corn  is  sifted 
in  a  sieve;  yet  shall  not  the  least  grain  fall  upon  the  earth.”  J  It 
was  further  threatened,  as  if  to  make  sure  of  their  national 
destruction,  “ And  among  these  nations  thou  shalt  find  no  ease, 
neither  shall  the  sole  of  thy  foot  have  rest,  hut  the  Lord  shall  give 
thee  a  trembling  heart  arid  failing  of  eyes,  and  sorrow  of  mind ; 
and  thy  life  shall  hang  in  doubt  before  thee,  and  thou  shalt  fear 
day  and  night,  and  have  none  assurance  of  thy  life.  ||  Contrary 
to  all  appearances,  and  in  spite  of  all  this  dispersion  and  persecu¬ 
tion,  it  is  predicted  that  Israel  shall  still  exist  as  a  nation,  and  be 
restored  to  the  favor  of  God,  and  that  prosperity  which  ever 
accompanies  it:  “ And  yet,  for  all  that,  when  they  be  in  the  land 
of  their  enemies,  I  will  not  cast  them  away,  neither  will  I  abhor 
them  to  destroy  them  utterly,  and  to  break  my  covenant  with  them; 
for  I  am  the  Lord  their  God.”  § 

Here  are  four  distinct  predictions — of  national  peculiarity — 
universal  dispersion — grievous  oppression — and  remarkable  pre¬ 
servation.  The  fulfillment  is  obvious  and  undeniable.  You  need 
no  commentary  to  explain  it.  Go  into  any  clothing-store  on 
AVestern  Row,  or  into  the  synagogue  in  Broadway,  and  you  will 
see  it.  The  infidel  is  sorely  perplexed  to  give  any  account  of  this 
great  phenomenon.  IIow  does  it  happen  that  this  singular  people 
is  dispersed  over  all  the  earth,  and  yet  distinct  and  unamalgamated 
with  any  other?  How  does  it  happen  that  for  eighteen  hundred 
years  they  have  resisted  all  the  influences  of  nature,  and  all  the 
customs  of  society,  and  all  the  powers  of  persecution,  driving  them 
towards  amalgamation,  and  irresistible  in  all  other  instances?  In 
the  face  of  the  power  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  in  spite  of  the 


*  Numbers,  chap.  23.  £  Amos,  chap.  9.  [|  Leviticus,  chap.  26. 

f  Leviticus,  chap.  26.  g  Deuteronomy,  chap.  32. 


149 


22 


PROPHECY. 


tortures  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  amidst  the  chaos  of  African 
nationalities  and  the  fusion  of  American  democracy,  in  the  plains 
of  Australia,  and  in  the  'streets  of  San  Francisco,  the  religion, 
customs,  and  physiognomy  of  the  children  of  Israel  are  as  distinct 
this  day  as  they  were  three  thousand  years  ago,  when  Moses 
wrote  them  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  Shishak  painted  them  on  the 
tombs  of  Medinct  Abou.  How  does  the  infidel  account  for  it? 
It  will  not  do  to  allege  the  favorite  story  about  purity  of  blood  and 
Caucasian  race ;  for  the  question  is,  IIow  does  it  happen  that  this 
people,  and  this  people  alone,  have  kept  the  blood  pure ;  while  all 
other  races  are  so  mingled  that  no  other  race  can  be  found  pure 
on  earth?  Besides,  lest  any  should  suppose  such  a  cause  suffi¬ 
cient  for  their  preservation,  another  nation  descended  from  the 
same  father  and  the  same  mother — the  children  of  Jacob’s  twin 
brother,  have  utterly  perished,  and  there  is  not  any  remaining 
of  the  house  of  Esau. 

Human  sagacity,  with  all  the  facts  before  its  face,  can  not  give 
any  rational  account  of  the  causes  of  this  anomaly.  It  can  not 
tell  to-day,  why  this  people  exists  separate  from,  and  scattered 
through  all  nations,  from  Kamschatka  to  New  Zealand  ;  how,  then, 
could  it  foretell,  three  thousand  years  ago,  this  singular  exception 
to  all  the  laws  of  national  existence  ?  While  the  sun  and  moon 
endure,  the  nation  of  Israel  shall  exist  as  God’s  witness  to  God’s 
word — an  undeniable  proof  that  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  it. 

Take  another  instance  of  preservation,  so  remarkable  amidst 
the  surrounding  destruction,  that  it  arrested  the  attention  and 
admiration  of  the  author  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  skeptic  and  scoffer  though  he  was. 

The  seven  churches  of  seven  of  the  most  considerable  cities 
of  Asia,  were  then,  as  the  churches  of  Christ  still  are,  the  salt 
of  the  earth.  Ten  righteous  men  would  have  averted  God’s  judg¬ 
ments  from  Sodom.  Jesus  pronounced  the  sentences  of  tlieso 
churches  seventeen  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago,  and  the  present 
condition  of  the  cities  attests  the  Divine  authority  of  the  record 
containing  them.  They  are  various  and  specific.  Three  were  to 
be  utterly  destroyed.  Against  two  no  special  threatening  is 
denounced.  To  the  remaining  two  promises  of  life  and  blessing 
are  given. 

Ephesus,  famous  for  its  magnificence,  the  busy  avenue  of  travel, 

150 


PROPHECY. 


23 


the  seat  of  the  temple  of  Diana,  long  the  residence  of  an  apostle, 
and  afterward  of  Christian  bishops — “one  of  the  eyes  of  Asia,” — 
as  it  stood  first  on  the  roll  of  cities,  first  receives  the  doom  of 
abused  privileges :  “I  will  remove  thy  candlestick  oat  of  its  place, 
unless  thou  repent  .” 

Sa}rs  Gibbon :  *  “  The  captivity  and  ruin  of  the  seven  churches 
of  Asia  was  consummated  (by  the  Ottomans)  A.  D.  1312;  and  the 
barbarous  lords  of  Ionia  and  Lydia  still  trample  on  the  monuments 
of  classic  and  Christian  antiquity.  In  the  loss  of  Ephesus,  the 
Christians  deplored  the  fall  of  the  first  angel,  and  the  extinction 
of  the  first  candlestick  of  the  Revelation.  The  desolation  is  com¬ 
plete,  and  the  temple  of  Diana  or  the  Church  of  Mary  will  equally 
elude  the  search  of  the  curious  traveler.” 

“A  few  unintelligible  heaps  of  stones,”  says  Arundell.  “with 
some  mud  cottages  untenanted,  are  all  the  remains  of  the  great 
city  of  the  Ephesians.  Even  the  sea  has  retired  from  the  scene 
of  desolation,  and  a  pestilential  morass,  covered  with  mud  and 
rushes,  has  succeeded  to  the  waters  which  brought  up  the  ships 
laden  with  merchandise  from  every  country.”  Some  parts  of  the 
site  of  the  city  are  cultivated ;  and  Disk,  who  entered  into  conver¬ 
sation  with  the  Greek  peasants,  men  and  women  whom  he  found 
pulling  up  the  tares  and  weeds  from  the  corn,  ascertained  that 
they  all  belonged  to  distant  villages,  and  came  there  to  labor. 

Had  the  twenty  thousand  patrons  of  the  drama  in  the  thirty-one 
theatres  of  New  York,  honored  the  theatre  of  Laodicea  with  their 
presence,  its  polite  citizens  would  have  accommodated  them  all  on 
the  reserved  seats,  retiring  themselves  to  ten  thousand  less  com¬ 
modious  sittings,  and  to  two  less  gigantic  theatres.  While  yet 
busy  in  the  erection  of  their  splendid  places  of  public  amusement, 
Jesus  said,  llIwiU  spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth.”  “  The  circus  and 
three  stately  theatres  of  Laodicea  are  peopled  with  wolves  and 
foxes,”  says  Gibbon. 

A  Lydian  capitalist  once  deposited  in  the  vaults  of  Sardis  more 
specie  than  is  now  in  circulation  in  this  whole  continent.  But 
Jesus  said,  11  Thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest  and  art  dead. 
If,  therefore,  thou  shall  not  watch,  I  will  come  upon  thee  as  a  thief, 
and  thou  shall  not  know  what  hour  I  will  come  upon  thee.” 

“  Sardis,”  says  Gibbon,  “  is  a  miserable  village.”  A  later  writer 


*  Chapter  64. 


151 


24 


PROPHECY. 


(Durbin)  tells  us  that  the  Turks  say,  “  Every  one  who  builds  a 
house  in  Sardis  dies  soon,  and  avoid  the  spot.”  Arundell,  in  his 
account  of  his  visit  to  the  seven  churches,  says :  “If  I  were  asked 
what  impresses  the  mind  most  strongly  on  beholding  Sardis,  I 
should  say  “  its  indescribable  solitude,  like  the  darkness  of  Egypt, 
that  could  be  felt.  So  deep  the  solitude  of  the  spot,  once  the  lady 
of  kingdoms,  produces  a  feeling  of  desolate  abandonment  in  the 
mind  which  can  never  be  forgotten.”  Connect  this  feeling  with 
the  message  of  the  Apocalypse  to  the  church  of  Sardis,  “  Thou 
hast  a  name  that  thou  livest  and  art  dead,  and  then  look  around 
and  ask,  Where  are  the  churches  ?  Where  are  the  Christiana 
of  Sardis?  The  tumuli  beyond  the  Ilermus  reply,  “ All  dead!” — • 
suffering  the  infliction  of  the  threatened  judgment  of  God  for  the 
abuse  of  their  privileges.  Let  the  unbeliever,  then,  be  asked,  Is 
there  no  truth  in  prophecy? — no  reality  in  religion?” 

Only  twenty-seven  miles  north  of  this  desolate  metropolis,  the 
manufactories  of  Thyatira  despatch  weekly  to  Smyrna,  cloths,  as 
famous  over  Asia  for  the  brilliancy  and  durability  of  their  hues  as 
those  which  Lydia  displayed  to  the  admiration  of  the  ladies  of 
Phillippi.  Two  thousand  two  hundred  Greek  Christians,  two 
hundred  Armenian,  and  a  Protestant  Church  under  the  care  of  the 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Foreign 
Missions,  assemble  every  Sabbath  to  commemorate  the  resurrection 
of  Him  who  said  to  the  Church  of  Thyatira:  “/ will  put  upon  you 
no  other  burden ;  but  that  which  ye  have  already  hold  fast  till  1 
come” 

The  fragrant  citron  still  flourishes  around  the  birth-place  of 
Galen;  but  the  ruins  of  the  famous  library  of  200,000  manuscripts 
are  far  less  durable  memorials  of  the  city  of  booksellers  than  those 
beautifully  dressed  skins,  which,  taking  their  name  ( Pergamena ) 
from  the  place  of  their  manufacture,  will  preserve  the  name  and 
fame  of  Pergamos  as  long  as  parchment  can  preserve  man's 
memorials  or  God’s  predictions.  Though  famous  for  fragrance, 
physic,  and  philosophy,  Pergamos  was  infamous  for  idolatry,  licen¬ 
tiousness,  and  persecution;  yet  still  endeared  to  Jesus  as  the  scene 
of  the  martyrdom  of  faithful  Antipas,  and  the  dwelling-place  of  a 
hidden  church;  and  widely  different  sentences  are  recorded  against 
those  opposite  classes.  The  public  memorials  are  to  perish,  but 
the  hidden  word  to  endure.  “The  fanes  of  Jupiter  and  Diana, 
and  Venus  and  Esculapius,  (worshipped  under  the  symbol  of  a  live 
152 


PROPHECY. 


25 


snake,)  were  prostrate  in  the  dust,  and  where  they  had  not  been 
carried  away  by  the  Turks  to  cut  up  into  tombstones  or  pound 
into  mortar,  the  Corinthian  columns  and  the  Ionic,  the  splendid 
capitals,  the  cornices  and  the  pediments,  all  in  the  highest  orna¬ 
ment,  were  thrown  in  unsightly  heaps  is  the  comment  on  the 
threatening  of  Jesus,  “7  will  jiglit  against  them — the  idolaters — ■ 
with  the  sword  of  my  mouth  .”  The  3,000  Greek  and  300  Armenian 
Christians,  and  even  the  10,000  Turkish  inhabitants  of  the  modern 
Pergamos,  have  received  hundreds  of  copies  of  the  promise,  “  To 
him  that  overcometh  I  will  give  to  cat  of  the  hidden  7nanna,  and 
will  give  him  a  white  stone ,  and  in  the  stone  a  neiv  name  written, 
which  no  man  hnoweth,  saving  he  that  receiveth  it.”  But  whether 
the  hidden  church  of  Pergamos  shine  forth  or  not,  Gibbon  was 
inaccurate  in  stating,  in  the  face  of  facts,  that  “  the  god  of  Mo¬ 
hammed  without  a  rival  is  invoked  in  the  mosques  of  Pergamos 
and  Thyatira.”  God’s  providence  is  as  discriminating  as  his 
prophecy,  though  unbelief  may  overlook  both. 

We  have  noted  here  instances  of  the  prediction  of  remarkable 
destruction  to  Sardis,  Ephesus,  and  Laodicea — of  continued  exist¬ 
ence  to  Pergamos  and  Thyatira — let  us  now  note  a  prediction  of 
remarkable  escape  and  preservation  from  the  universal  doom.  If 
it  requires  no  inspiration  to  prophecy  destruction — the  universal 
fate  of  humanity,  according  to  the  infidel — surely  it  requires  more 
than  human  skill  to  say  that  any  city  shall  escape  this  universal 
fate,  and  more  than  human  power  to  avert  this  destruction.  Of 
Philadelphia — but  twenty-five  miles  distant  from  the  ruins  of 
Sardis — Jesus  said,  and  the  Bible  records  the  prophecy:  “7  know 
thy  works ;  behold  I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man 
can  shut  it,  for  thou  hast  a  little  strength,  and  hast  kept  my  word, 
and  hast  not  denied  my  name.  Behold  I  will  make  them  of  the 
synagogue  of  Satan,  which  say  they  are  Jews  and  are  not,  but  do 
lie ;  behold  I  will  make  them  to  come  and  worship  before  thy  feet, 
and  to  know  that  I  have  loved  thee.  Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word 
of  my  patience,  I  also  will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  temptation 
which  shall  come  upon  all  the  world,  to  try  them  that  dwell  upon  the 
earth.  Behold  I  come  quickly,  hold  that  fast  thou  hast,  that  no  man 
take  thy  crown.  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  make  a  pillar  in  the 
temple  of  my  God ,  and  he  shall  go  no  more  out;  and  I  will  write 


*  Macfarlane’s  Seven  Apocalyptic  Churches. 


153 


26 


PROPHECY. 


upon  him  the  name  of  my  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  my  God, 
which  is,  New  Jerusalem,  which  cometli  down  out  of  heaven  from  my 
God ;  and  I  will  write  upon  him  my  new  name.” 

“Philadelphia  alone,”  says  Gibbon,  “has  been  saved  by  prophecy, 
or  courage.  At  a  distance  from  the  sea,  forgotten  by  the  emperors, 
encompassed  on  all  sides  by  the  Turks,  her  valiant  sons  defended 
their  religion  and  their  freedom  alone  for  fourscore  years,  and  at 
length  capitulated  with  the  proudest  of  the  Ottomans.  Among 
the  Greek  colonies  and  churches  of  Asia,  Philadelphia  is  still 
erect — a  column  in  a  scene  of  ruins — a  pleasing  example  that  the 
paths  of  honor  and  safety  may  be  the  same.” 

In  the  pages  of  this  eloquent  writer  it  would  be  hard  to  discover 
another  instance  of  unqualified  hearty  commendation  of  soldiers 
or  sufferers  for  Christianity  and  liberty,  such  as  Gibbon  here 
bestows  on  Philadelphia's  valiant  sons.  But  it  was  written,  “7  will 
make  them  come  and  worship  before  thy  feet,”  and  the  skeptic  and 
scoffer  must  fulfill  the  word  of  Jesus;  even  as  the  unbelieving  Mo¬ 
hammedan  also  does,  when  he  writes  upon  it  the  modern  name, 
Allah  Sehr — The  City  of  God.  A  majestic  solitary  pillar,  of  high 
antiquity,  arrests  the  eye  of  the  traveler,  and  reminds  the  wor¬ 
shippers  of  the  six  modern  churches  of  Philadelphia,  of  the  beauty 
and  faithfulness  of  the  prophetic  symbol.  Heaven  and  earth  shall 
pass  away,  but  Jesus’  word  shall  not  pass  away. 

Improbable  to  human  sagacity  as  this  preservation  must  have 
seemed,  the  resurrection  of  a  fallen  city  is  more  utterly  beyond 
man’s  vision.  In  the  Bible,  however,  tribulation  and  recovery  was 
foretold  to  Smyrna:  “ Fear  none  of  those  things  which  thou  shalt 
suffer.  Behold  the  devil  shall  cast  some  of  you  into  prison,  and  ye 
shall  have  tribulation  ten  days.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and 
I  ivill  give  thee  a  crown  of  life.”  “  The  populousness  of  Smyrna  is 
owing  to  the  foreign  trade  of  the  Franks  and  Armenians,”  says 
the  scoffer.  JMo  matter  to  what  it  is  owing;  he  who  dictated  the 
Bible  foresaw  it,  and  made  no  mistake  in  foretelling  it.  Says 
Arundell:  “This,  the  other  eye  of  Asia,  is  still  a  very  flourishing 
commercial  city,  one  of  the  very  first  in  the  present  Turkish 
empire  in  wealth  and  population,  containing  130,000  inhabitants. 
The  continued  importance  of  Smyrna  may  lie  estimated  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  seat  of  a  consul  from  every  nation  in  Europe. 
The  prosperity  of  Smyrna  is  now  rather  on  the  increase  than  the 
decline,  and  the  houses  of  painted  wood,  which  were  most  unwor- 
154 


PROPHECY. 


27 


thy  of  its  ancient  fame  and  present  importance,  are  rapidly  giving 
way  to  palaces  of  stone  rising  in  all  directions;  and  probably,  ere 
many  years  have  passed,  the  modern  town  may  not  unworthily 
represent  the  ancient  city7',  which  the  ancients  delighted  to  call  the 
crown  of  Ionia.  Commercial  activity  and  architectural  beauty, 
however,  are  but  a  small  part  of  the  glorious  destiny  of  the  com¬ 
munity  to  which  Jesus  says,  “  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life.” 
Deliverance  from  the  curse  of  sin,  and  communion  with  the  Lord  of 
Life,  alone  can  secure  either  a  nation’s  or  an  individual’s  immor¬ 
tality.  Smyrna  possesses  the  gospel  of  salvation.  Several  devoted 
English  and  American  missionaries  proclaim  salvation  to  its  citi¬ 
zens.  From  its  printing  presses  thousands  of  copies  of  the  word 
of  life  issue  to  all  the  various  populations  of  the  Turkish  empire. 
A  living  church  of  Christ  in  Smyrna  holds  forth  for  the  acceptance 
of  the  dying  nations  around  her,  that  crown  of  life  promised  and 
granted  by  the  word  of  God,  not  to  her  only,  but  to  all  who  love 
his  appearing  and  his  kingdom. 

V.  This  is  the  grand  distinction  of  God’s  word  of  prophecy,  that 
it  is  the  word  of  life.  It  is  the  only  word  which  promises  life,  the 
only  word  which  bestows  it  on  fallen  humanity.  Recognizing  no 
inevitable  law  of  destruction  but  the  sentence  of  God,  no  invariable 
law  of  nature  superior  to  the  counsel  of  Jehovah,  nor  any  progress 
of  events  which  his  Almighty  arm  can  not  arrest  and  reverse,  it 
points  a  despairing  world  to  sin  as  the  cause  of  all  destruction,  to 
Satan  as  the  author  of  sin,  to  ungodly  men  in  league  with  him  as 
the  foes  of  God  and  man,  and  to  Christ  pledged  to  perpetual  war¬ 
fare  with  such  until  the  last  enemy  be  destroyed.  This  word  of 
prophecy  tells  us,  that  the  battle-fields  Messiah  has  won  are  earnests 
of  that  great  victory ;  points  to  the  columns  which  he  has  pre¬ 
served  erect  amidst  scenes  of  ruin,  as  assurances  that  he  is  able  to 
save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him;  goes  to  the 
grave-yards,  where  fallen  Smyrnas,  idolatrous  Saxons,  debased 
Sandwich  Islanders,  and  cannibal  New  Zealanders  have  buried  the 
image  of  the  living  God,  and  in  Jesus’  name  proclaims,  “/  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life:  he  that  helieveth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live and,  amidst  the  very  ruins  of  destroyed 
cities,  and  the  crumbling  heaps  of  their  perished  memorials,  be¬ 
holds  the  assurances  that  Satan’s  rule  of  ruin  shall  not  be  per¬ 
petual,  anticipates  the  day  when  the  course  of  sin  and  misery  shall 
be  reversed,  and  teaches  Adam’s  sons' to  face  the  foe,  and  chant 

155 


28 


PROPHECY. 


forth  that  heaven-born  note  of  victorious  faith,  uO  thou  enemy  l 
destructions  are  come  to  a  perpetual  end.” 

Come  forth,  trembling  skeptic,  from  the  cave  of  thy  dark  invari¬ 
able  experience  of  death  and  destruction,  and  from  the  vain  sparks 
of  thy  misgiving  hopes  of  an  ungodly  eternity  to  come  less  miser¬ 
able  than  the  past,  and  lift  thine  eyes  to  this  heavenly  sunrising 
on  the  dark  mountain  tops  of  futurity,  the  like  of  which  thou 
didst  never  dream  of  in  all  thy  Pantheistic  reveries.  Search  over 
all  the  religions  of  the  world — the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  the 
arrow-headed  inscriptions  of  Assyria,  the  classic  mythologies  of 
graceful  Greece  and  iron  Rome,  the  monstrous  shasters  of  thine 
Indian  Pundits,  or  the  more  chaotic  clouds  of  thy  German  philoso¬ 
phies — in  none  of  them  wilt  thou  ever  find  this  divine  thought, 
an  end  of  destructions — a  perpetual  end.  Cycles  of  ruin  and  reno¬ 
vation,  and  of  renovation  and  ruin,  vast  cycles,  if  you  will,  but 
evermore  ending  in  dire  catastrophes  to  gods  and  men — an  ever¬ 
lasting  succession  of  death  and  destructions,  is  the  fearful  vista 
which  all  the  religions  of  man,  and  thine  own  irreligion,  present  to 
thy  terrified  vision.  But  thou  wast  created  in  the  image  of  the 
living  God,  and  durst  not  rest  satisfied  with  any  such  prospect. 
Now  I  come  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  to  tell  thee  that,  “God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  hut  have  everlasting  life” — • 
and  I  demand  of  thee  that  thou  acknowledge  this  promise  of  life 
everlasting  to  be  the  word  of  that  living  God,  and  to  show  cause, 
if  any  thou  hast,  why  thou  dost  relinquish  thy  birthright,  and 
spurn  the  gift  of  everlasting  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord? 

But,  if  thou  hast  no  sufficient  cause  why  thou  shouldest  choose 
death  rather  than  life,  then  hear,  and  your  soul  shall  live,  while  I 
relate  the  promises  which  God  hath  made  of  old  to  our  fathers,  and 
hath  fulfilled  to  us  their  children,  by  raising  up  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead,  and  sending  him  to  bless  you,  by  turning 
away  every  one  of  you  from  your  iniquities.  For  there  can  be  no 
deliverance  from  misery  and  destruction  but  by  means  of  delivery 
from  sin  and  Satan. 

It  is  quite  in  agreement  with  the  manner  of  our  deliverance  from 
any  of  the  evils  of  our  fallen  condition,  that  our  deliverance  from 
the  power  of  sin  and  Satan  be  effected  by  the  agenc}r  of  a  deliverer. 
Our  ignorance  is  removed  by  the  knowledge  of  a  teacher — our  sick¬ 
ness  by  the  skill  of  a  physician — the  oppressed  nation  hails  the 
156 


PROPHECY. 


29 


advent  of  a  patriotic  leader,  and  oppressed  humanity  acknowledges 
the  fitness  and  need  of  a  Divine  deliverer,  even  by  the  ready  wel¬ 
come  it  has  given  to  pretenders  to  this  character,  and  by  the 
longing  desire  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  men  for  a  divinely-com¬ 
missioned  Savior — a  desire  implanted  by  the  great  prophecy,  which 
stands  at  the  portal  of  hope  for  mankind,  in  the  very  earliest 
period  of  our  history,  that  '''the  seed  of  the  woman  should  bruise 
the  serpent’s  head,”  and  so  leave  man  triumphant  over  the  great 
destroyer. 

The  prophecies  regarding  the  Messiah  are  so  numerous,  pointed, 
various,  and  improbable,  as  to  set  human  sagacity  utterly  at 
defiance  ;  while  they  are  also  connected  so  as  to  form  a  scheme 
of  prophecy,  which  gradually  unrolls  before  us  the  advent,  the 
ministry,  the  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  the  Lord,  the 
progress  of  his  gospel  over  all  the  world,  and  the  blessed  effects  it 
should  produce  on  individuals,  families,  and  nations.  It  closes 
with  a  view  of  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  to  conquer  the  last  of 
his  enemies,  and  take  possession  of  the  earth  as  his  inheritance. 
I  can  only  lop  off  a  twig  or  two  from  this  blessed  tree  of  life,  in 
the  hope  that  the  fragrance  of  the  leaves  may  allure  you  to  take 
up  the  Bible,  and  eat  abundantly  of  its  life-giving  promises.  As  I 
have  in  the  three  previous  Tracts  abundantly  proved  the  veracity 
of  the  New  Testament  history,  I  shall  now  with  all  confidence  refer 
to  its  account  of  the  birth,  life,  and  death  of  Jesus,  as  illustrating 
the  prophecies. 

The  time,  the  place,  the  manner  of  his  birth,  his  parentage  and 
reception,  were  plainly  declared,  hundreds  of  years  before  he 
appeared. 

When  Herod  had  gathered  all  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of 
the  people  together,  he  demanded  of  them  where  Christ  should  be 
born,  and  they  said  unto  him,  “in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  for  thus 
it  is  written  by  the  prophet:  ‘And  thou  Bethlehem ,  in  the  land  of 
Judah,  art  not  the  least  among  the  princes  of  Judah,  for  out  of 
thee  shall  come  a  Governor,  that  shall  ride  my  people  Israel.”  The 
first  verse  of  this  chapter  records  the  fact,  “Now  when  Jesus  was 
born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea.”* 

The  throne  of  Judah  was  to  be  occupied  by  strangers,  and  the 
line  of  native  princes  was  to  cease  upon  the  coming  of  this  Gover- 


*  Matthew,  chap.  2. 


157 


30 


PROPHECY. 


nor,  and  not  till  his  coming:  “The  scepter  shall  not  depart  from 
Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet,. till  Shiloh  come,  and 
to  him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be.”  On  the  day  of  his 
crucifixion  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  made  this  formal  and  public- 
announcement  of  the  fact,  “We  have  no  king  but  Caesar.” * 

He  was  to  address  a  class  of  people  whom  no  other  religious 
teacher  had  condescended  to  notice  before,  and  very  few  save  those 
sent  by  him  ever  since:  “The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me , 
because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the 
meek,  to  bind  up  the  broken  hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  cap¬ 
tives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound.”  Hear 
Jesus’ words:  “Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Go  and  tell  John  those  things  ye 
do  hear  and  see.  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  the  lame  walk,  the 
lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised *up,  and  the 
poor  have  the  gospel  preached  unto  them.  And  blessed  is  he  who¬ 
soever  shall  not  be  offended  in  me.”  f 

Yet,  notwithstanding  his  feeding  of  thousands,  and  healing  of 
multitudes,  and  teaching  of  the  lowest  of  the  people,  it  was  fore¬ 
told  he  should  be  unpopular:  “He  is  despised  and  rejected  of  men, 
a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  griefs,  and  we  hid,  as  it 
were,  our  faces  from  him.  He  is  despised,  and  we  esteemed  him 
not.”  The  brief  records  are:  “Then  all  his  disciples  forsook  him 
and  fled.”  “  Then  began  Peter  to  curse  and  to  swear,  saying,  ‘I 
know  not  the  man.’  Pilate  saith  unto  them,  ‘Ye  have  a  custom 
that  I  release  unto  you  one  at  the  passover:  will  ye,  therefore,  that 
I  release  unto  you  the  King  of  the  Jews?’  Then  they  all  cried 
again,  saying,  ‘Not  this  man,  but  Barabbas.’  Now  Barabbas  was 


a  robber.”  $ 

All  the  prophets  agree  in  predicting  that  for  the  sins  of  his 
people,  and  to  atone  for  their  guilt,  he  should  be  put  to  death  by  a 
shameful  public  execution:  “In  the  midst  of  the  week  Messiah  shall 
be  cut  off,  but  not  for  himself.  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgres¬ 
sions,  he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
ivas  upon  him,  and  by  his  stripes  toe  are  healed.  He  was  numbered \ 
ivith  the  transgressors,  and  he  bore  the  sin  of  many,  and  he  made 
intercession  for  the  transgressors.  They  pierced  my  hands  and  my 


•Gen.,  49:10.  John,  19:  15.  f  Isaiah,  61.  Matthew,  11 :  2. 

|  Isaiah,  53:  3.  Matthew,  26:  56,  74;  27:  15.  John,  18:  40. 

158 


PROPHECY. 


31 


feet .”  *  The  record  says :  “  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  he  min¬ 
istered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many.”  “And  when  they  were  come  to  the  place  which  is  called 
Calvary,  there  they  crucified  him  and  the  malefactors,  one  on  the 
right  hand  and  the  other  on  the  left.  Then  said  Jesus,  ‘ Father , 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.’  ” 

The  one  grand  unparalleled  fact,  one  which  demands  the  hope 
of  dying  men  for  a  victory  over  the  great  destroyer,  and  a  resur¬ 
rection  from  the  tomb — the  fact  that  one  man  born  of  a  woman 
died,  and  did  not  see  corruption,  but  rose  again  from  the  dead  and 
went  up  into  heaven,  and  dieth  no  more — forms  the  theme  of  many 
a  prophetic  psalm  of  triumph  :  “  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell , 
nor  wilt  thou  give  thine  Iloly  One  to  see  corruption.  Thou  wilt  show 
me  the  path-  of  life.  Thou  wilt  make  me  fidl  of  joy  with  thy  coun¬ 
tenance.  Thou  hast  ascended  on  high.  Thou  hast  led  captivity  cap¬ 
tive.”  Often  did  Jesus  predict  this  prodigy  before  friend  and  foe: 
u  Sir,  ice  remember  that  that  deceiver  said,  when  he  was  yet  alive , 
‘ After  three  days  I  will  rise  again.”  The  last  chapters  of  the 
gospels  relate  the  proofs  by  which  he  convinced  his  incredulous 
disciples  that  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled:  “Behold  my  hands  and 
my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself.  Handle  me  and  see,  for  a  spirit  hath 
not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have.  And  when  he  had  thus 
spoken,  he  showed  them  his  hands  and  his  feet.  And  while  they 
yet  believed  not  for  joy,  and  wondered,  he  saith  unto  them,  ‘Have 
vc  here  any  meat?7  And  they  gave  him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  fish, 
and  of  an  honey  comb.  And  he  took  it  and  did  eat  before  them  ; 
and  said  unto  them,  *  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behooved 
Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third  day  ;  and  that 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name 
among  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  And  ye  are  witnesses 
of  these  things.  And  behold  I  send  the  promise  of  my  Father 
upon  you,  but  tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high.  And  he  led  them  out  as  far  as  to  Beth¬ 
any,  and  he  lifted  up  his  hands  and  blessed  them.  And  while  he 
was  blessing  them  he  was  parted  from  them,  and  carried  up  into 
heaven.  And  while  they  looked  steadfastly  toward  heaven,  as  he 
went  up,  behold  two  men  stood  by  them  in  white  apparel,  which 
said,  ‘Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven? 


*  Dauiel,  9 :  26.  Isaiah,  53  :  5, 12.  Psalm22:  16.  Matthew.  20 :  28.  Luke, 23:33. 

159 


82 


PROPHECY. 


Tiiis  same  Jesus,  which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so 
come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven/  ”  * 

With  your  own  eyes  you  shall  see  the  fulfillment  of  this  pro¬ 
phecy.  Every  eye  shall  see  him.  The  clouds  of  heaven  shall  then 
reveal  the  vision  now  sketched  on  the  page  of  revelation :  “And  I 
saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face 
the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away,  and  there  was  found  no  place 
for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before 
God ;  and  the  books  were  opened ;  and  another  book  was  opened, 
which  is  the  book  of  life ;  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those 
things  which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works. 
And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it;  and  death  and 
hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  ;  and  they  were 
judged  every  man  according  to  their  works.  And  death  and  hell 

were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  This  is  the  second  death.  And 

% 

whosoever  was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of  life  was  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire.  And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth:  for 
the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away;  and  there 
was  no  more  sea.  And  I  John  saw  the  holy  city,  New  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  from  God,  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned 
for  her  husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  heaven  saying, 
‘Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he  will  dwell  with 
them,  and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  God  himself  shall  be  with 
them,  and  be  their  God.  And  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from 
their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor 
crying:  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain;  for  the  former 
things  are  passed  away/  And  he  that  sat  upon  the  throne  said, 
‘Behold,  I  make  all  things  new.’  And  he  said  unto  me,  ‘Write, 

TOR  THESE  WORDS  ARE  TRUE  AND  FAITHFUL/ 


*  Psalm  16 :  10 ;  68  :  18.  Matthew,  28 :  63.  John,  20 :  24.  Luke,  20  :  36.  Acts,  1 :  9. 


Wo.  3©. 


MDSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


In  the  foregoing  tracts  of  this  series  we  have  found  that  we 
have  great  need  of  God's  teaching;  that  he  has  sent  his  son,  Jesus 
Christ,  to  show  us  the  way  of  life :  that  the  gospel  preached  by 
Him  and  His  Apostles  has  proved  itself  the  power  of  God  by  saving 
men  from  their  sins  ;  and  that  this  gospel  is  truly  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament.  From  these  facts,  already  settled,  we  proceed, 
according  to  our  plan  of  investigation,  to  examine  those  which  may 
be  more  obscure — to  examine  the  Old  Testament  by  the  light  of 
the  New. 

The  great  majority  of  Jews  and  Christians  have  always  believed, 
that  the  world  was  in  as  great  need  of  God’s  teaching  before  the 
coming  of  Christ  as  it  has  been  since — that  God  did  put  his  words 
into  the  mouths  of  certain  persons,  called  prophets  ;  and  that  he 
caused  them  to  tell  them  truly  to  their  neighbors — that  he  enabled 
these  prophets  to  make  predictions  of  future  events  beyond  the 
skill  of  man  to  calculate,  and  to  do  miracles  which  the  power 
of  man  could  not  perform,  as  proofs  that  they  spake  the  word 
of  God — that  he  caused  them  truly  to  record  in  writing  a  great 
many  of  these  revelations,  and  so  much  of  the  history  of  the 
times  in  which,  and  of  the  people  to  whom,  they  were  given,  as 
was  needful  for  a  right  understanding  of  them — that  he  lias  so 
managed  matters  since,  as  that  these  revelations  and  narratives 
have  been  faithfully  preserved  in  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment — that  we  are  bound  to  believe  these  revelations  to  be  true,  not 
because  we  can  otherwise  demonstrate  their  truth,  but  because 
God,  who  can  not  lie,  has  declared  it;  and  that  we  are  bound  to  do 
the  things  they  command,  not  merely  because  we  see  them  to  be 
•  right,  but  because  God  commands  us. 

It  is  needful  to  consider  the  Divine  Authority  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  distinctly  from  that  of  the  New,  not  only  because  it  is  a  dis¬ 
tinct  subject  in  itself, — and  because  our  plan  of  investigation  leads 
us  backward  from  the  known  and  established  fact  of  the  Divine  Au¬ 
thority  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  discovery  or  disproof  of  the  like 
character  in  the  Old, — but  because  a  great  many  persons  admit,  in 
words  at  least,  that  Christ  was  a  teacher  sent  from  God,  who,  either 
in  so  many  words  or  in  effect,  deny  the  Divine  Authority  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Some  of  the  modern  Spiritualists  have  revived  the  creed 
11  1C1 


2 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


of  the  Gnostics  of  the  first  century — that  the  Hebrew  Jehovah  was 
a  being  of  very  different  character  from  the  Deity  revealed  by  Jesus 
Christ.  They  will  extol  to  the  skies  the  world-wide  benevolence, 
compassion  and  kindness,  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  in  contrast 
with  the  alleged  national  pride,  bigotry,  and  exclusiveness  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets.  Others  are  desirous  of  appearing  remarkably 
candid  in  bestowing  on  the  Old  Testament  a  liberal  commendation 
as  a  collection  of  religious  tracts  of  merely  human  origin,  and  of 
various  degrees  of  merit — some  of  them  of  extraordinary  literary 
excellence,  well  suited  to  the  infancy  of  the  human  intellect,  and 
highly  useful  in  their  time  in  raising  men  from  fetichism  and  idol¬ 
atry  to  the  worship  of  one  God;  but  which,  containing  many  errors 
along  with  this  grand  truth,  have  been  set  aside  by  the  more  per¬ 
fect  teachings  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  much  in  the  same  way  as 
the  old  Ptolemaic  Astronomy  was  displaced  by  the  discoveries  of 
Newton.  Others  still  are  willing  to  acknowledge  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  as  inspired,  provided  we  will  allow  Shakspeare  and  the  Koran 
to  be  inspired  also.  Besides  all  these  there  are  several  scores  of 
scholars  anxious  to  conceal  its  nakedness  under  theories  of  inspira¬ 
tion  made  and  trimmed  in  a  great  many  styles,  but  all  cut  from 
the  same  doctrine,  to  wit:  that  God  revealed  his  truth  aright  to 
Moses  and  the  Prophets,  but  they  went  wrong  in  the  telling  of  it. 
Now,  all  these  notions  will  be  refuted  by  the  fact,  that  God  is  the 
Author  of  the  Bible. 

When  we  say  that  God  is  the  Author  of  the  Bible,  and  that  it 
carries  with  it  a  Divine  Authority  because  it  is  the  Word  of  God, 
we  do  not  mean  that  God  is  the  Author  of  every  saying  in  it,  and 
that  every  sentiment  recorded  in  it  is  God’s  mind,  any  more  than 
we  mean  to  make  D’Aubigne  responsible  for  every  sentiment  of 
priests,  popes,  and  monks  he  has  faithfully  recorded  in  his  History 
of  the  Reformation.  On  the  contrary,  we  find,  in  the  very  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  Bible,  a  very  full  expression  of  the  Devil’s  sentiments 
recorded  in  the  Devil’s  own  words — Ye  shall  not  surely  die:  and 
they  are  notone  whit  less  devilish  and  lying,  though  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  than  when  expounded  by  any  modern  Universalist  preacher. 
But  we  mean  that  it  is  very  true  that  the  Devil  was  the  preacher 
of  that  first  Universalist  sermon  ;  and  that  God  thought  it  needful 
to  let  mankind  know  the  shane  of  the  doctrine,  the  character  of  the 
preacher,  and  the  consequences  of  listening  to  error;  and  therefore 
directed  Moses  to  record  it  truly  for  the  information  of  all  whom 
162 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


3 


it  may  concern.  So  there  are  many  other  sayings  of  wicked  men, 
and  even  of  good  men,  recorded  in  the  Bible,  which  are  very  false ; 
but  the  Bible  gives  a  true  record  of  them,  by  God’s  direction,  that 
we  may  not  be  ignorant  of  Satan’s  devices. 

Nor,  when  we  say  that  God  directed  the  Prophets  what  to 
write  and  how  to  write  it,  so  that  they  did  not  go  wrong  in  the 
writing  of  his  word,  do  we  mean  that  he  also  so  guided  every  piece 
of  their  behavior,  as  that  they  never  went  wrong  in  doing  their 
own  actions.  Nor  that  the  sins  of  the  saints,  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  are  any  thing  the  less  sinful  for  being  recorded  there,  or  for 
being  performed  by  men  who  ought  to  have  known  better.  There 
is  not  a  perfect  man  upon  the  earth,  that  doeth  good,  and  sinneth 
not.  If  the  Bible  had  left  the  faults  of  its  writers  undiscovered,  it 
would  not  have  been  a  true  history.  But  these  very  writers  of 
the  Bible  tell  us  their  own  transgressions,  under  the  direction  of 
the  spirit  of  God :  a  thing  writers  in  general  are  very  shy  about. 
Moses  tells  us  how  he  spake  unadvisedly  with  his  lips,  and  was 
punished  for  it.  David’s  penitential  psalms  record  the  bitter  tears 
he  wept  over  his  transgression;  tears  which  could  not  wash  out 
the  sentence  against  the  man  after  God’s  own  heart. — “  The  Sword 
shall  neve r  depart  from  thy  house.”  An  overburdened  people,  a 
rotten  court,  a  falling  empire,  continual  strife,  a  family  of  scolding 
women,  only  one  son,  and  he  a  fool — might  have  been  considered 
sufficient  marks  of  God’s  displeasure,  without  causing  the  wisest 
of  men  to  pen  and  publish  to  the  world,  such  a  minute  record  of 
his  madness,  folly,  and  misery,  as  we  find  in  Ecclesiastes.  But 
these  shipwrecked  mariners  were  divinely  directed  to  pile  up  the 
sad  memorials  of  their  errors,  on  the  reefs  where  they  were 
wrecked,  as  beacons  of  warning  to  all  inexperienced  voyagers  on 
life’s  treacherous  sea.  The  light-house  is  built  by  the  same 
authority  as  the  custom-house. 

Now  let  us  take  note  of  the  objects  of  our  investigation.  We 
are  not  in  search  of  the  literary  beauty  or  poetic  inspiration  of 
the  Bible;  but  we  inquire  by  what  right  does  it  command  our 
obedience?  Nor  are  we  about  to  inquire  whether,  when  we  have 
tried  the  Bible  at  the  tribunal  of  our  reason,  we  shall  give  it  a 
diploma  to  commend  it  to  the  patronage  of  other  critics ;  but 
whether  it  comes  to  us  attested  by  such  evidence  of  being  the 
word  of  God,  that  our  reason  shall  reverently  bow  down  before  it 

163 


4 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


as  a  higher  authority,  and  seek  light  from  it  by  which  to  judge 
of  all  spiritual  and  moral  matters. 

Attempts  are  continually  made  to  confuse  these  great  questions, 
by  concessions  of  the  literary  excellence  of  the  Bible,  on  the  part 
of  those  who  deny  its  Divine  authority.  For  instance,  one  of  the 
modern  oracles  of  infidelity  says,  and  his  admirers  incessantly 
repeat  the  grand  discovery:  “The  writings  of  the  Prophets  con¬ 
tain  nothing  above  the  reach  of  the  human  faculties.  Here  are 
noble  and  spirit-stirring  appeals  to  men’s  conscience,  patriotism, 
honor,  and  religion  ;  beautiful  poetic  descriptions,  odes,  hymns, 
expressions  of  faith  almost  beyond  praise.  But  the  mark  of 
human  infirmity  is  on  them  all,  and  proofs  or  signs  of  miraculous 
inspiration  are  not  found  in  them.”* 

But  what  do  the  toiling  millions  of  earth  care  about  beautiful 
poetic  descriptions  of  a  heaven  and  a  hell  that  have  no  reality?  Or 
w’hat  does  it  signify  to  you  or  me,  reader,  that  the  Bible  raises 
its  head  far  above  the  other  cedars  of  earthly  literature — if  its  top 
reaches  not  to  heaven,  can  it  make  a  ladder  long  enough  to  carry 
us  there  ?  The  Bible  contains  predictions  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
human  faculties,  as  we  have  fully  proved.!  These  predictions  at 
least  are  from  God,  and  have  no  mark  of  human  infirmity  on  them. 

It  does  not  at  all  meet  this  question  to  grant,  as  many  Panthe¬ 
ists  do,  that  the  Bible  is  inspired — -just  as  every  work  of  genius  is 
inspired;  nor  to  profess  that  they  believe  the  Bible  to  be  from 
God — -just  as  every  pure  and  holy  thought,  and  every  good  work, 
proceed  from  him.  When  the  asserters  of  the  Divine  authority 
of  the  Bible  speak  of  it  as  inspired,  they  mean  that  it  is  so  as  no 
other  book  is  ;  and  when  they  speak  of  it  as  coming  from  God, 
they  mean  that  it  does  not  come  simply  as  a  gift  of  God’s  bounty, 
as  the  soldier’s  land-warrant  comes  from  the  government;  but 
that  it  comes  like  the  laws  of  Congress,  carrying  authority  with 
it  to  command  our  obedience. 

We  feel  no  interest  whatever  in  the  discussion  of  an  inspiration, 
“like  God’s  omnipotence,  not  limited  to  the  few  writers  claimed  by 
the  Jews,  Christians  and  Mahommedans,  but  as  extensive  as  the 
race;”  J  or  perhaps  as  extensive  as  all  creation,  and  leading  us  to 
regard  even  “the  solemn  notes  of  the  screech  owl”  as  inspired. || 


*  Parker’s  Absolute  Religion,  p.  205.  f  See  Tract  29. 

J  Parker’s  Discourses  on  Religion,  p.  161. 

||  Mackniglit’s  Doctrine  of  Inspiration,  p.  161,  and  seq. 

164 


/ 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


5 


What  manner  of  use  could  the  Bible  be  to  an  ignorant  soul  grop¬ 
ing  its  way  to  truth  and  holiness,  or  to  a  dying  sinner  hastening 
to  the  judgment  seat  of  God,  if  it  were  true,  that,  “  the  Bible’s  own 
teaching  on  the  subject  is  that  every  thing  good  in  any  book, 
person,  or  thing,  is  inspired  ?  Milton  and  Shakspeare,  and  Bacon 
and  the  Canticles,  the  Apocalypse,  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  the  Eighth  Chapter  of  the  Romans  are  all  inspired.  How 
much  inspiration  they  respectively  contain  must  be  gathered  from 
tlieir  results.”  * 

This  liberal  grant  of  inspiration,  alike  to  Moses  and  Mahommed, 
to  Christ  and  to  Shakspeare,  is  evidently  a  denial  of  Divine  Au¬ 
thority  to  any  of  them.  If  Hamlet,  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  the  Koran,  are  all  of  a  like  Divine  Authority,  or  all  alike  with¬ 
out  any,  it  is  merely  a  matter  of  taste  whether  I  worship  at  Niblo’s 
or  the  Tabernacle,  or  keep  a  harem  in  my  house,  or  a  prayer  meet¬ 
ing.  Most  men,  however,  find  it  hard  to  believe  that  Christ  and 
Mahommed  taught  exactly  the  same  religion,  or  that  the  church 
and  the  theater  are  precisely  equal  and  alike  in  their  influences  on 
the  heart  and  life  ;  and  so  they  reject  several  of  these  inspired  men 
and  cleave  to  the  one  they  like  best.  Whereas,  if  this  Pantheist 
theory  be  true,  they  ought  not  to  act  in  such  a  disrespectful  way 
toward  any  inspired  man  ;  but  ought  to  attend  the  church,  the 
theater,  and  the  harem  with  equal  regularity,  and  serve  God,  mam¬ 
mon,  and  Belial  with  equal  diligence. 

“Oh,”  it  is  replied,  “they  are  not  all  inspired  in  the  same  de¬ 
gree.  It  does  not  follow  that  because  Byron,  and  Shakspeare,  and 
Paul  are  all  inspired,  that  their  writings  will  produce  exactly  the 
same  results,  or  that  they  are  alike  suitable  for  every  constitution 
and  temper.  How  much  inspiration  they  severally  possess  must 
be  determined  by  their  results.  The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits; 
and  experience  is  the  price  of  truth.” 

But  truth  may  be  bought  too  dear.  I  am  sick  and  need  some 
medicine,  but  know  not  exactly  what  kind,  or  how  much  to  take. 
“  Here,”  says  my  Pantheist  friend,  “  is  a  whole  drug  store  for  you. 
Every  drawer,  and  pot,  and  bottle  is  full  of  medicine.  Help  your¬ 
self.”  But,  my  good  sir,  how  am  I  to  know  what  kind  will  suit  me  ? 
There  are  poisons  here  as  well  as  medicines  ;  and  I  can  not  tell  the 
difference  between  arsenic  and  calomel.  One  of  my  neighbors  died 


*  Mackniglit’s  Doctrine  of  Inspiration,  ps.  192,  etc. 


165 


6 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


the  other  day  from  swallowing  oxalic  acid  instead  of  Glauber's  Salts. 
Be  kind  enough  to  put  the  poisons  on  one  shelf  and  the  medicines 
on  the  other,  or,  at  least,  to  label  them,  so  that  I  may  know  which 
to  choose  and  which  to  refuse.  “Oh,"  says  my  Pantheist  friend, 
this  distinction  between  medicines  and  poisons  is  all  an  antiquated, 
vulgar  prejudice.  What  you  call  poisons  are  really  medicines- 
Medical  virtue  is  not  confined  to  the  few  specifics  recognized  by  the 
Homcepathics,  the  Regular  Faculty,  or  the  Hydropathics,  but  is  as 
extensive  as  the  world.  Every  thing  on  earth  has  a  medical  virtue ; 
but  how  much,  and  of  what  sort,  must  be  determined  by  experi¬ 
ence.  In  fact,  you  must  just  try  for  yourself  whether  any  particu¬ 
lar  drug  will  kill  you  or  cure  you.  So  here  is  the  whole  drug  store 
to  begin  your  cure  with."  A  valuable  gift,  truly  !  “  In  the  day  we 

eat  thereof,  our  eyes  will  be  opened,  and  we  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil."  I  think,  reader,  you  and  I  will  let  some¬ 
body  else  try  that  experiment. 

“  Quite  right!  Why  should  men  throw  away  their  common  sense 
and  swallow  everything  as  inspired?"  says  our  friend  of  the 
rationalistic  school.  “  God  has  given  us  reason  to  discern  between 
good  and  evil,  and  commanded  us  to  use  it.  Prove  the  Spirits 
whether  they  he  of  God.  I  speak  as  to  wise  men.  Judge  ye  what  I 
say — is  the  language  of  Scripture.  The  right  of  private  judgment 
is  the  inalienable  inheritance  of  Protestants.  I  am  for  examining 
the  Bible  according  to  the  principles  of  reason  and  truth.  ‘  That 
only  is  to  be  regarded  as  true  and  valid  which  is  matter  of  per¬ 
sonal  conviction.7  The  Old  Testament  is  in  many  places  contrary 
to  my  convictions  of  truth  and  reason.  I  find  that  it  consists  of  a 
great  variety  of  treatises  of  various  degrees  of  merit.  Even  in  the 
same  book  it  presents  often  strange  contrasts — sublime  moral  pre¬ 
cepts  on  one  page  ;  on  the  next,  solemn  requirements  of  frivolous 
ceremonies,  utterly  unworthy  of  God ;  or  solemn  narrations  of  mir¬ 
aculous  interferences  with  the  established  course  of  nature,  which, 
taken  literally,  are  absolutely  incredible.  The  judicious  reader 
must  therefore  discriminate  between  those  divine  precepts  of  mor¬ 
ality  which  were  infused  into  the  minds  of  the  Hebrew  sages,  and 
those  Jewish  prejudices  which  their  education  and  character  in¬ 
clined  them  to  regard  as  equally  important ;  and  he  must  divest  the 
narrative  of  facts  as  they  actually  occurred,  from  the  national  le¬ 
gends  and  traditions  which  the  compilers  of  the  Pentateuch  added  to 
adorn  the  history.77 
16G 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


7 


This,  it  -will  be  seen,  at  once  raises  another  and  very  important 
question,  namely :  By  what  standard  are  the  writings  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  be  judged?  Or  rather  it  settles  the  question  by  tak¬ 
ing  it  for  granted  that  every  inquirer  is  to  judge  them  according  to 
his  own  notions  of  reason  and  truth.  But  this  does  not  help  me 
out  of  my  difficulty ;  for  it  supposes  me  already  to  possess  the 
knowledge  and  the  virtue  which  a  revelation  from  God  is  needed  to 
communicate.  If  I  am  able,  by  my  own  reasdn,  to  construct  a  per¬ 
fect  standard  of  morals  to  judge  the  Bible  by,  what  need  have  I  for 
the  Bible  revelation  ?  And  if  I  have  the  right  to  refuse  obedience 
to  any  commands  I  may  judge  frivolous  or  unreasonable,  before 
I  know  whether  they  came  from  God  or  not,  and  am  bound  to  obey 
only  those  which  agree  with  my  notions  of  right,  what  authority 
has  the  law  of  God?  A  revelation  from  God  which  should  submit 
its  truths  to  be  judged  by  the  ignorance,  and  its  commands  by  the 
inclinations,  of  sinful  men,  would  by  that  very  submission  declare  its 
worthlessness.  The  use  of  a  Divine  Revelation  is  either  to  tell  us 
some  truth  of  which  we  are  ignorant,  or  to  enjoin  some  duty  to 
which  we  are  disinclined. 

Besides,  it  is  not  possible  to  make  any  such  dissection  of  the 
moral  precepts  of  the  Bible,  from  the  miraculous  history  which 
forms  their  skeleton,  as  will  leave  them  either  truth  or  authority. 
It  is  the  miraculous  history  that  gives  sanction  to  the  Divine 
morality,  and  without  it,  the  ten  commandments  would  have  no 
more  hold  on  any  man’s  conscience,  than  the  wise  saws  which 
Poor  Richard  says.  Take  for  instance,  one  of  the  first  and  most 
important  of  the  Bible  moralities — the  sacredness  of  marriage — 
which  is  wholly  based  upon  a  narrative  of  events  utterly  unparal¬ 
leled;  and  if  judged  by  the  usual  course  of  nature,  perfectly  in¬ 
credible.  The  original  difference  in  the  formation  of  man  and 
woman,  and  God’s  making  at  first  one  man  and  one  woman,  and 
joining  them  together  with  his  blessing,  constitute  the  reasons,  and 
consecrate  the  pledge  of  marriage.  “  For  this  cause  shall  a  man 
leave  his  father  and  mother — although  the  claims  of  the  parental  re¬ 
lation  are  very  strong — and  cleave  to  his  wife — with  whom  it  may 
be  he  has  but  a  few  weeks’  acquaintance — and  they  two  shall  he  one 
flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined  together  let  not  man  put 
asunder .”  But  if  the  cause  had  no  existence,  save  in  the  brain 
of  some  antediluvian  novel-writer,  and  God  did  not  so  unite  them, 

167 


8 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


the  consequence  is  only  a  notion  also,  and  any  man  may  leave 
his  wife  whenever  he  likes. 

By  far  the  most  incredible  narrative  in  the  Bible  is  contained 
in  the  first  verso:  “  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  ”  All  the  other  miracles  recorded  in  it,  sink  into  famili¬ 
arity  compared  with  this  stupendous  display  of  the  supernatural. 
To  the  believer  of  this  first  great  miracle,  none  of  its  subsequent 
narratives  can  seem  incredible.  But  it  is  precisely  upon  this 
unexampled  and  incredible  narrative,  that  the  whole  structure 
of  Bible  morality  is  built.  If  this  extraordinary  narrative  be 
rejected  as  false,  all  the  moral  precepts  of  the  Bible  are  not  worth 
a  feather.  The  morality  of  the  Bible,  then,  stands  or  falls  with 
its  history. 

If  we  proceed  now  to  examine  the  facts  of  the  history,  it  is 
evident  neither  your  reason  or  mine,  nor  our  personal  convictions, 
can  be  any  rule  of  what  is  true  and  valid.  The  most  that  reason 
can  say  about  history  is,  that  the  story  seems  probable;  but  so 
does  any  well-written  novel:  or  that  it  is  improbable;  but  truth 
is  often  stranger  than  fiction  ;  and  every  genuine  history  relates 
wonderful  events.  Neither  does  our  personal  knowledge  enable 
us  to  tell  what  was  the  original  historical  fact,  how  much  was 
added  by  the  Hebrew  prejudices  of  Moses,  and  which  are  the 
legends  with  which  it  was  afterward  adorned  ;  for  neither  you  nor 
I  were  there  to  see.  Nor  can  any  two  of  those  critics,  who  have 
undertaken  to  divide  the  facts  from  the  fables  according  to  their 
personal  convictions  of  what  is  true  and  valid,  agree  upon  any 
common  principle  of  gleaning,  or  in  gathering  in  their  results. 
And  if  they  could,  the  crop  would  not  be  worth  barn-room ;  for 
the  only  conclusion  in  which  they  seem  at  all  likely  to  agree  is, 
that  the  story  of  creation  in  the  beginning  of  the  book  is  a  myth, 
like  one  of  Ovid’s  Metamorphoses ;  and  that  the  prophecy  of  the 
resurrection  at  the  end,  is  another ;  and  that  there  are  a  great 
many  legends  in  the  middle.  Now,  if  so,  why  winnow  such  chaff? 

But  while  the  Jewish  people  exist  as  a  distinct  race,  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  rationally  to  deny  some  extraordinary  origin  of  their  extra¬ 
ordinary  character  and  customs ;  and  the  Bible  is  the  only  history 
which  pretends  to  tell  it.  The  utter  failure  of  Rationalistic  criti¬ 
cism  to  give  any  rational  account  of  the  facts  which  must  be  admit¬ 
ted  to  account  for  the  existence  of  the  Jews  as  a  distinct  people,  is 
ludicrously  apparent  in  the  attempts  generally  made  to  explain  the 
168 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


9 


plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  miracles  of 
the  desert,  as  merely  natural  phenomena,  dextrously  used  by 
Moses  and  xlaron  to  suit  their  purpose. 

It  is  alleged  that  these  enthusiastic  patriots,  full  of  the  super¬ 
stitions  of  an  early  age,  which  attributed  all  prodigies  to  God,  and 
placed  all  heroes  under  his  guidance,  succeeded  by  their  fiery  elo¬ 
quence  in  inspiring  their  captive  countrymen  with  the  love  of  lib¬ 
erty;  and  had  political  dexterity  enough  to  create  a  faction  in  their 
favor  in  the  Egyptian  cabinet.  Then  taking  advantage  of  a  for¬ 
tunate  succession  of  calamities  arising  from  natural  causes, — 
such  as  an  extraordinary  rising  of  the  Nile,  in  consequence  of 
which  it  was  more  deeply  colored  than  usual  with  the  red  mud 
of  Nubia,  and  overflowed  the  country  to  a  greater  extent  than 
usual,  leaving  on  its  retreat  numerous  ponds  which  of  course  bred 
swarms  of  frogs  and  gnats,  and  raised  malaria,  spreading  various 
sicknesses  over  the  land  both  to  man  and  beast ;  a  devastating 
visit  of  locusts,  the  well-known  scourge  of  Africa ;  a  remarkable 
thunderstorm,  accompanied  with  hail,  causing  great  havoc  of 
growing  crops,  as  such  hail  storms  always  do ;  followed  by  the 
chamsin,  or  dust-storm  from  the  desert,  darkening  the  air  with 
clouds  of  dust  and  sand;  and  by  an  extraordinary  mortality,  the 
natural  result  of  these  various  causes, — they  persuaded  the  su¬ 
perstitious  Egyptians  that  these  calamities  were  tokens  of  the 
displeasure  of  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  and  improved  the  opportu¬ 
nity  to  escape  while  the  resources  of  the  Egyptians  were  exhausted, 
and  their  minds  confounded  by  these  various  misfortunes.  Leading 
them  to  that  part  of  the  Red  Sea  south  of  Suez,  where  a  succession 
of  shoals,  or  rather  a  bar,  stretches  across  from  the  Egyptian  to  the 
Arabian  side,  they  crossed  safely  at  low  water,  while  the  Egyptian 
army  perished  by  the  rising  of  the  tide  ;  and  the  Israelites  betaking  - 
themselves  to  a  wandering,  pastoral  life  in  the  wilderness  of  Arabia, 
lived,  as  the  Bedouins  do  at  this  day,  on  the  milk  of  their  flocks 
and  the  manna  which  was  spontaneously  produced  by  the  tamarisk 
trees  of  Sinai, — where  they  remained  until  they  had  framed  a  civil 
and  religious  code,  and  whence  they  prosecuted  their  conquests  in 
various  directions  for  fifty  years,  until  their  invasion  of  Palestine. 
This  is  the  sum  of  what,  with  various  modifications,  Rationalist 
writers  and  preachers  present  us,  as  the  genuine  historic  basis  of 
the  Mosaic  narrative. 

It  really  does  seem  to  have  been  very  fortunate  for  the  Israelites, 

109 


10 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


that  so  many  misfortunes  should  happen  to  fall  upon  their  oppres¬ 
sors,  all  in  one  season,  and  just  at  the  time  that  men  of  such  clev¬ 
erness  as  Moses  and  Aaron  were  among  them  ;  and  that  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  should  luckily  have  imbibed  the  superstition,  that  all  nature 
was  under  the  direction  of  a  Supreme  Moral  Governor,  who  was 
able  and  willing  to  wield  all  the  elements  for  the  punishment  of 
oppressors.  Would  it  not  be  for  the  interests  of  liberty  if  Ameri¬ 
can  slaveholders  were  also  infected  with  this  superstition? 

It  was  also  very  lucky  for  these  poor,  overworked,  and  oppressed 
slaves, — the  class  which  in  all  other  ages  and  countries  suffers  most 
from  hard  times, — that  they  should  have  escaped  unhurt  by  these 
calamities;  for  if  they  had  suffered  by  them  as  well  as  the  Egyp¬ 
tians,  they  could  not  have  persuaded  them  that  God  favored  Israel. 

Here  one  can  not  but  wonder  that  these  learned  Egyptians, 
whose  colleges  of  priests  were  planted  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and 
who  had  made  the  climate,  soil,  and  productions  of  their  native  land 
their  constant  study,  should  have  been  so  ignorant  of  these  natural 
causes  of  the  plagues — so  easily  discovered  now-a-days  by  any  body 
who  makes  a  summer  trip  to  Egypt — as  to  be  terrified  into  emanci¬ 
pating  their  slaves  by  a  stormy  season.  Just  imagine  to  yourself  a 
couple  of  Abolitionist  lecturers  proceeding  to  Lexington  and  com¬ 
manding  the  slaveholders  of  Kentucky  to  liberate  their  slaves  im¬ 
mediately,  on  pain  of  the  Ohio  being  muddy  during  high  water, 
and  the  swamps  of  the  river-bottom  being  full  of  frogs  and  mosqui¬ 
toes!  But  this  interpretation  does  not  reach  the  climax  of  absurd¬ 
ity  till  our  nationalist  Punch,  by  way  of  signalizing  his  deliver¬ 
ance  from  Egyptian  bondage,  makes  Pharaoh  and  his  army  forget 
that  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows  in  the  Red  Sea,  raises  the  tide  over  a 
shoal  faster  than  cavalry  could  gallop  away  from  it,  gathers  an  an- 
.  nual  crop  of  twenty  millions  of  bushels  of  manna  from  the  thorn- 
bushes  of  Sinai,  and  feeds  three  millions  of  men,  women,  and  chil¬ 
dren  for  forty  years  upon  purgative  medicine  ! ! ! 

“  We  must  then  give  up  the  problem  as  insoluble  ;  for  if  reason 
be  insufficient  to  give  authority  to  the  Bible,  and  criticism  fails  to 
discover  its  truth,  how  are  we  to  know  that  it  possesses  either  ?,; 

Just  as  you  would  discover  the  truth  of  any  other  history,  or  the 
authority  of  any  other  law.  You  do  not  say,  “  The  tale  of  the  suc¬ 
cessive  swellings  of  the  Catawba,  the  Yadkin,  and  the  Dan, — three 
times  in  a  fortnight,  in  Feb.,  1781,  immediately  after  the  American 
army  had  retreated  across  these  rivers,  preventing  Cornwallis  and  the 
170 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


11 


British  forces  from  crossing  till  the  little  handful  of  weary  and  fam¬ 
ished  patriots  had  escaped — savors  of  the  marvelous  and  leans  so 
much  toward  the  superstition  of  a  special  providence,  that  it  must 
he  rejected  as  not  historical.”  You  inquire  if  there  be  sufficient 
testimony  to  the  fact.  You  do  not  say,  “The  Revised  Statutes  pre¬ 
sent  internal  evidence  of  being  a  collection  of  political  tracts  by 
various  authors,  written  at  different  times,  differing  also  in  style, 
and  of  various  degrees  of  merit,  many  of  them  contrary  to  my  in¬ 
most  personal  convictions;  therefore  I  can  not  acknowledge  them  as 
true  and  valid.”  You  simply  ask  if  this  be  a  true  copy  of  the  laws 
passed  by  the  Legislature  and  signed  by  the  Governor?  Our  in¬ 
quiry  about  the  truth  of  the  history,  and  the  authority  of  the  laws 
of  the  Bible,  must  be  of  the  same  kind — an  inquiry  after  testimony. 
Is  this  book  genuine  or  a  forgery?  Is  it  a  true  history  or  a  lying 
romance?  Have  we  any  testimony  on  the  subject? 

It  is  important  at  the  outset  to  know  how  long  these  documents 
have  undoubtedly  existed.  No  one  denies  that  they  were  in  exist¬ 
ence  1800  years  ago.  Indeed,  the  lirst  literary  attack  on  them 
which  has  been  recorded  was  made  about  that  time;  and  Josephus’ 
defence  of  the  Scriptures  against  Apion  still  exists.  The  very 
same  writings  which  the  Protestant  churches  now  acknowledge  as 
canonical,  and  none  other,  were  then  acknowledged  to  be  of  Divine 
authority  by  the  Jews.  It  is  true  they  bound  their  Bibles  differ¬ 
ently  from  ours,  but  the  contents  were  the  very  same.  They  made 
up  their  parchments  of  the  39  books  in  22  rolls  or  volumes,  one  for 
every  letter  of  their  alphabet — putting  Judges  and  Ruth,  the  two 
books  of  Samuel,  the  two  books  of  Kings,  the  two  books  of  Chron¬ 
icles,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  Jeremiah’s  Prophecy  and  Lamenta¬ 
tions,  and  the  twelve  minor  prophets,  in  one  volume  respectively. 
They  also  distinguished  the  Five  Books  of  Moses  as  The  Law; 
the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Song  of  Solomon,  as  The 
Psalms ;  and  all  the  remainder  as,  The  Prophets*  Moreover,  it  is 
well  known  that  282  years  before  the  Christian  Era,  these  writings 
were  translated  into  Greek  and  widely  circulated  in  all  parts  of  tho 
world.  They  were,  in  fact,  not  only  popular,  but  received  as  of 
Divine  authority  by  the  Jews  at  that  time,  read  in  their  Syna¬ 
gogues  in  public  worship,  and  regarded  with  sacred  reverence. 
How  did  they  come  to  receive  them  in  this  manner? 


*  Josephus  against  Apion,  book  1,  sec.  8. 


Horne’s  Introduction,  chap.  2,  sec.  1. 


171 


12 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


These  books  are  not  such  as  any  person  would  forge  to  gain 
popularity  or  make  money  by.  There  is  nothing  in  them  to  bribe 
the  good  opinion  of  influential  people,  or  catch  the  favor  of  the 
multitude.  On  the  contrary,  their  stern  severity  and  unsparing 
denunciation  of  popular  vice  and  profitable  sin  must  have  secured 
their  rejection  by  the  Jewish  people,  had  they  not  been  constrained 
by  undeniable  evidence  to  acknowledge  their  Divine  Authority. 
They  set  out  with  the  assertion  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  the 
Law  of  Moses,  and  every  where  sharply  reprove  princes,  priests, 
and  people  for  breaking  it.  The  Prophets,  so  far  from  seeking 
popularity,  are  fool-hardy  enough  to  denounce  the  bonnets,  hoops, 
and  flounces  of  the  ladies,  and  to  cry,  Woe!  against  the  regular 
business  of  the  most  respectable  note-shavers* — to  croak  against  the 
march  of  intellect,  and  shake  public  confidence  in  the  prosperity 
of  their  great  country! — to  ally  themselves  with  fanatic  abolition¬ 
ists,  and  introduce  agitating  political  questions  into  the  pulpit ; 
crying,  Woe  to  him  that  aseth  his  neighbor's  service  without  wages , 
and  giveth  him  not  for  his  work. !  To  crown  all,  they  organized 
Abolition  clubs  to  procure  immediate  emancipation,  and  published 
incendiary  proclamations  in  the  cities  of  the  slaveholders:  §  and, 
strange  to  say,  they  were  allowed  to  escape  with  their  lives;  and 
their  writings  were  held  sacred  by  the  children  of  those  very  men 
and  women  they  so  unsparingly  denounced — a  conclusive  proof 
that  the  calamities  they  predicted  had  compelled  them  to  acknowl¬ 
edge  these  prophets  as  the  heralds  of  God.  The  proof  must  have 
been  conclusive  indeed,  which  compelled  the  Jews  to  acknowledge 
the  writings  of  the  Prophets  as  sacred. 

Another  very  striking  feature  of  these  writings  is  their  mutual 
connection  with  each  other.  They  were  written  at  various  inter¬ 
vals,  during  a  period  of  a  thousand  years’  duration,  by  shepherds 
and  kings,  by  prophets  and  priests,  by  governors  of  states  and 
gatherers  of  sycamore  fruit ;  in  deserts  and  in  palaces,  in  camps 
and  in  cities,  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  in  Arabia  and  Babylon  ;  under 
the  iron  heel  of  despotic  oppression  and  amid  the  liberty  of  the 
most  democratic  republic  the  world  ever  saw:  yet,  amid  all  this 
variety  of  authorship,  and  change  of  circumstances,  and  lapse  of 
time,  they  ever  hold  to  one  great  theme,  always  assert  the  same 


*  Isaiah,  iii:  1G.  Ezek.,  xviii:  12.  f  Jere.,  21  ch.,  and  xxii:  1G^ 
f.Jere.,  xxii;  13.  gJere.,  chap.  34. 

172 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


13 


great  principles,  and  perpetually  claim  connection  with  the  writers 
who  have  preceded  them.  There  is  nothing  like  this  in  the  his¬ 
tories  of  other  nations.  Two  centuries  will  work  such  changes  of 
opinion,  that  you  can  not  find  now-a-days  any  historian  who  ap¬ 
proves  the  sentiments  of  Pepys  or  Clarendon,  whatever  use  he 
may  make  of  their  facts.  But  the  historians  of  the  Bible  not 
only  refer  to  their  predecessors’  writings,  but  refer  to  them  as  of 
acknowledged  Divine  authority.  Thus  the  very  latest  of  these 
books  gives  the  weight  of  its  testimony  to  the  first — “  And  they 
set  the  priests  in  their  divisions,  and  the  Levites  in  their  courses 
for  the  service  of  God,  which  is  at  Jerusalem,  as  it,  is  written  in 
the  hook  of  Moses.”  *  And  Daniel  speaks  of  the  books  of  Moses 
as  well  known  when  he  says,  “  Thei'efore  the  curse  is  poured  upon 
us,  and  the  oath  that  is  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  the  servant 
of  God.”  t  The  shortest  book  in  the  Old  Testament — the  prophecy 
of  Obadiali,  consisting  only  of  twenty  sentences — contains  twenty- 
five  allusions  to  the  preceding  histories  and  laws.  The  last  of  the 
Prophets  shuts  up  the  volume  with  a  command  to  “  Remember 
the  laio  of  Moses.”  In  fact,  just  as  the  Epistles  prove  the  exist¬ 
ence  and  acknowledged  authority  of  the  Gospels ;  so  do  the  Proph¬ 
ets  prove  the  existence  and  acknowledged  authority  of  the  Law 
of  Moses.  They  were  acknowledged  not  merely  by  one  generation 
of  the  Jewish  people,  but  by  the  nation  during  the  whole  period 
of  its  national  existence  :  and  they  are  of  such  a  character,  and  so 
closely  connected  by  references  from  one  to  the  other,  that  they 
must  then,  and  now,  be  taken  as  one  whole — all  accepted,  or  all 
rejected  together. 

The  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  will  speedily  find  that  these 
writings  are  not  merely  a  connected  history  of  the  nation,  of  great 
general  interest,  like  Bancroft’s  or  Macauley’s,  but  of  no  such  spe¬ 
cial  interest  to  any  individual  as  to  force  him,  by  a  sense  of  self- 
interest,  or  the  danger  of  loss  of  liberty  or  property,  to  correct  their 
errors.  On  the  contrary,  every  farmer  in  Palestine  was  deeply 
concerned  in  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  the  Bible ;  for  it  contained 
not  only  the  general  boundaries  of  the  country,  and  of  the  particu¬ 
lar  tribes  ;  like  the  survey  of  the  Maine  boundary,  or  of  Mason 
and  Dixon’s  line;  but  it  delineated  particular  estates  also,  and  was 
in  fact,  the  Report  of  the  Surveyor-General,  deposited  in  the  county 


*  Ezra,  6  ;  18. 


f  Daniel,  9  :  11. 


173 


14 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


court  for  reference,  in  case  of  any  litigation  about  sale  or  inherit¬ 
ance  of  property.*  The  genealogies  of  the  tribes  and  families  were 
also  preserved  in  these  writings  ;  and  on  the  authenticity  and  cor¬ 
rectness  of  these  records,  the  inheritance  of  every  farm  in  the  land 
depended ;  for  as  no  lease  ran  more  than  fifty  years,  every  farm 
returned  to  the  heirs  of  the  original  settler,  at  the  year  of  jubilee. t 
Thus  every  Jewish  farmer  had  a  direct  interest  in  these  sacred  re¬ 
cords  ;  and  it  would  be  just  as  hard  to  forge  records  for  the  county 
courts  of  Ohio,  and  pass  them  off  upon  the  citizens  as  genuine,  and 
plead  them  in  the  courts  as  valid,  as  to  impose  at  first,  or  falsify 
afterward,  the  records  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Israel. 

This  will  appear  more  clearly,  when  we  consider  that  they  con¬ 
tained  also  the  laws  of  the  land — the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  of  Israel,  with  the  statutes  at  large — according  to  which, 
every  house  and  farm  and  garden  in  the  "whole  country  was  pos¬ 
sessed— every  court  of  justice  was  guided  + — every  election  was 
held,  from  the  election  of  a  petty  constable,  to  that  of  governor  of 
the  stated — and  the  militia  enrolled,  mustered,  officered,  and  called 
out  to  the  field  of  battle.  ||  These  laws  prescribed  the  way  in  which 
every  house  must  be  built,  regulated  the  weaver  in  weaving  his 
cloth,  and  the  tailor  in  making  it,  and  the  cooking  of  every  break¬ 
fast,  dinner  and  supper  eaten  by  any  Israelite  over  the  world,  from 
that  day  to  this.lj"  Now,  let  any  one  who  thinks  it  would  be  an 
easy  matter  to  forge  such  a  series  of  documents,  and  get  people  to 
receive  and  obey  them,  try  his  hand  in  making  a  volume  of  Acts 
of  Assembly,  and  passing  it  off  upon  the  people  of  Ohio  for  genu¬ 
ine.  Let  him  bring  an  action  into  one  of  the  courts,  and  persuade 
the  judges  to  give  a  decision  in  his  favor,  upon  the  strength  of  his 
forged  or  falsified  statutes,  and  then  he  may  hope  to  convince  us 
that  the  Laws  of  Moses  are  simply  a  collection  of  religious  tracts, 
which  came  to  be  held  sacred  through  lapse  of  time,  nobody  knows 
how  or  why.  /- 

To  a  Jew  living  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  who  received  the 
unanimous  testimony  of  his  nation,  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation,  confirmed  by  all  the  commemorative  ceremonies  of 
the  Passover  and  the  Sacrifices,  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  reading  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  in  the  Synagogue,  the 

*  Joshua,  chs.  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18,  19.  f  1  Chron.,  chs.  1,  2, 3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8, 9 ;  Lev.  25. 

t  Exo.,  xxi :  6.  Deut.,  i:  16,  ch.  19.  §  Exo.,  xviii:  21.  |]  Deut.  20  ch.  Numb,  x:  9, 
Deut.,  xxii:  8,  11,  12.  Lev.,  ch.  11. 

174 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


15 


singing  of  the  historical  Psalms  in  the  Temple,  and  the  execution 
of  the  Laws  of  Moses  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  by  the  very 
existence  of  the  Jewish  nation  as  a  distinct  people,  no  doubt  could 
remain  that  truths  so  unpopular,  and  laws  so  burdensome,  could 
never  have  been  received  by  any  nation,  unless  constrained  by 
some  superior  power;  nor  that  the  miracles  by  which  these  laws 
were  authenticated,  and  the  national  existence  of  the  people  of 
Israel  was  secured,  were  genuine  and  divine.  The  chain  of  his¬ 
torical  and  internal  evidence  is  too  strong  to  be  broken,  while  the 
Jewish  nation  exists. 

But  yet  this  historical  and  internal  evidence  of  the  authority  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  but  the  smallest  part  of  that  which  wo  pos¬ 
sess,  who  have  the  testimony  of  Christ  on  this  subject.  For  this 
testimony  removes  the  question  from  the  mists  of  antiquity,  and 
even  from  the  debatable  ground  of  historic  certainty,  and  resolves 
the  whole  process  of  searching  for,  and  comparing  and  examining 
a  host  of  second-hand  witnesses,  into  the  easy  and  certain  one  of 
hearing  the  author  himself  say  whether  he  acknowledges  this  book 
to  be  his  or  not.  Christians  receive  the  Old  Testament  as  the 
Word  of  God,  because  Jesus  says  so. 

Now,  reader,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  tnat  you  should  stop 
just  here,  and  give  a  plain,  confident  answer  to  these  questions: — • 
Dost  thou  believe  upon  the  Son  of  God  ?  Is  Jesus  the  Messiah  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  Law,  and  the  Prophets,  did  write?  Are  you 
perfectly  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the  New  Testament,  and  willing 
to  venture  your  eternal  salvation  upon  the  words  of  Christ  con¬ 
tained  in  it?  For  if  not,  of  what  use  is  it  for  you  to  trouble  your¬ 
self  about  the  Old  Testament  ?  You  might  as  well  waste  your  time 
in  examining  the  genuineness  of  the  bills  of  a  broken  bank  :  they 
may  be  genuine  or  they  may  be  forgeries;  but  who  cares?  They 
will  never  be  paid.  If  the  first  promises  of  the  Bank  of  Heaven,  to 
send  the  Messiah  1800  years  ago,  have  been  fulfilled,  its  other 
paper  may  be  also  valuable :  if  not,  it  must  be  equally  worthless. 
If  the  New  Testament  be  not  of  Divine  Authority,  you  may  place 
the  Prophets  on  the  same  shelf  with  the  Poems  of  Ossian :  and  then 
follows  the  serious  consequence,  that  there  is  not  a  grain  of  hope 
left  for  you  or  for  any  man  on  earth.  If  Jesus  be  indeed  an  Al¬ 
mighty  Savior,  and  if  he  has  indeed  risen  from  the  dead,  then, 
through  the  power  of  his  mighty  love,  your  filthy  soul  may  be 
washed  from  its  sins,  and  your  mortal  body  may  be  raised  from  the 

175 


16 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


rottenness  of  the  grave.  But  if  Christ  he  not  risen,  you  are  yet  in 
your  sins.  You  have  no  notion  that  any  of  the  gods  of  the  heathen, 
or  the  precepts  of  the  Koran,  can  purify  your  heart.  You  know 
well  that  Infidelity  never  sanctified  any  of  your  comrades.  Con¬ 
science  tells  you  that  you  are  not  any  better  now  than  you  were  a 
year  ago,  but  worse.  You  are  yet  in  your  sins ;  and  in  them  you 
must  live  and  die !  Aye,  while  your  immortal  soul  lives,  while  the 
laws  of  human  nature  continue,  you  must  carry  those  brands  of 
infamy  on  your  character,  and  daily  progress  from  bad  to  worse — 
sinking  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  contempt  of  all  intelligent  beings  ; 
and,  were  there  no  other  avenger,  in  the  remorse  and  despair  of 
your  own  mind,  you  must  experience  the  horrors  of  perdition. 
Jesus,  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him, 
is  your  only  hope.  There  is  none  other  name  given  under  heaven 
among  men  whereby  we  must  be  saved.  If  his  gospel  be  true,  you 
may  be  saved :  if  it  is  false,  you  must  be  damned. 

If  you  have  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  go  over  the  subject  again;  re-read  the  former  Tracts  of  this 
series;  pray  to  God  for  light  and  truth :  above  all,  read  the  Book 
itself  again  and  again:  and  if,  in  your  case,  as  in  that  of  one  of 
the  most  famous  teachers  of  German  Neology — De  Wette — the 
careful  study  of  the  New  Testament  impels  you  to  rush  through  all 
the  mists  of  doubt  to  the  higher  standpoint  of  a  lofty  faith,  and  the 
sunshine  of  real  religion  ;  and  if  with  him  you  can  now  say,  “  Only 
this  one  thing  I  know,  that  in  no  other  name  is  there  salvation 
than  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  the  crucified,  and  that  for  human¬ 
ity  there  is  nothing  higher  than  the  incarnation  of  Deity  set  before 
us  in  him,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  established  by  him,”*  you 
may  then  go  on  with  your  inquiry  into  the  Divine  authority  of  the 
Old  Testament.  AVdth  the  Master  himself  before  you,  the  Au¬ 
thor,  the  Inspirer,  by  whom,  and  for  whom,  the  Prophets  spake, 
and  to  whom  all  the  Scriptures  point,  you  will  not  think  of  wasting 
time  in  examining  second-hand  evidence;  but  go  direct  to  Jesus 
himself.  His  testimony  will  not  be  merely  so  much  additional  tes¬ 
timony — another  candle  added  to  the  chandelier  by  whose  light  you 
have  perused  the  evidences  of  the  Scriptures:  it  will  shine  out  on 
your  soul  as  the  light  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  with  healing  on 
his  wings.  Every  word  from  his  lips  will  awaken  in  your  heart 


176 


*  Preface  to  Exposition  of  the  Apocalypse. 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS-  17 

the  voice  from  heaven,  “  This  is  my  beloved  Son.  Hear  him.” 
What  saith  Christ,  then,  respecting  the  Old  Testament? 

The  moment  you  open  the  New  Testament  to  make  this  inquiry, 
you  are  met  by  a  reference  to  the  Old.  “  The  book  of  the  genera¬ 
tion  of  Jesus  Christ ,  the  Son  of  David,  the  Son  of  Abraham ,”  is 
its  formal  title :  and  the  most  cursory  perusal  tells  you  that  you 
have  taken  up,  not  a  separate  and  independent  work,  which  you  can 
profitably  peruse  and  understand  without  much  reference  to  some 
foregoing  volumes — as  one  might  read  Abbott’s  Life  of  Napoleon 
without  needing  at  the  same  time  to  study  The  History  of  the  Cru¬ 
sades — but  that  you  have  taken  up  a  continuation  of  some  former 
work, — the  last  volume  in  fact  of  the  Old  Testament, — and  that  you 
can  not  understand  even  the  first  chapter  without  a  careful  reading 
of  the  foregoing  volumes.  Before  }mu  have  finished  the  first  chap¬ 
ter  you  meet  with  the  most  unequivocal  assertion  of  the  harmony 
of  the  gospels  and  the  prophecies,  and  of  the  Divine  authority  of 
both — “  How  all  this  ivas  done  that  it  might  be  fulflled  ivhich  was 
spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet,  etc.”  The  whole  tenor  of  the 
New  Testament  corresponds  to  this  beginning,  teaching  that  the 
birth,  doctrine,  miracles,  life,  death,  resurrection,  ascension,  and 
second  coming  of  the  Lord,  are  the  fulfillments  of  the  Old  Testament 
promises  and  prophecies ;  of  which  no  less  than  a  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  are  expressly  quoted,  beginning  with  Moses  and  ending 
with  Malachi. 

We  can  not  explain  this  by  saying,  with  the  mythical  school  of 
interpreters,  that  this  was  merely  the  opinion  of  the  writers  of  the 
gospels  and  of  the  Jews  of  their  age;  whose  longings  for  the  Mes¬ 
siah  led  them  to  imagine  some  curious  coincidences  between  the 
events  of  Christ’s  life  and  the  utterances  of  these  ancient  oracles  to 
be  really  fulfillments  ;  and  that  Christ  did  not  deem  it  needful  in 
all  cases  to  undeceive  them.  For  to  suppose  that  Christ — the 
Truth — would  sanction  or  connive  at  any  such  sacrilegious  decep¬ 
tion,  is  at  once  to  deprive  him,  net  only  of  his  Divine  character, 
but  of  all  claim  to  common  honesty.  So  far  from  the  Jews  longing 
for  any  such  events  as  those  which  fulfilled  the  prophecies,  they 
despised  the  Messiah  in  whom  they  were  fulfilled,  and  refused  to 
believe  in  him ;  and  his  disciples  were  as  far  from  the  gospel  ideal 
of  the  Messiah,  wiien  Jesus  needed  to  reproach  them  with,  “  O, 
fools, and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have  spoken.”* 


12 


*  Luke,  xxiv ;  25. 

2 


177 


18 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


It  was  not  the  Jews,  nor  yet  the  disciples,  but  the  Lord  himself 
who  perpetually  insisted  on  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  as  The  Word  of  his  Father,  and  the  sufficient  attestation  of 
his  own  Divine  character,  after  this  manner:  Ye  have  not  his  word 
abiding  in  you ,  for  whom  he  hath  sent ,  him  ye  believe  not.  Search 
the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life;  and  they 
are  they  which  testify  of  me.  Had.  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have 
believed  me,  for  he  wrote  of  me;  but  if  ye  believe  not  his  writings , 
how  shall  ye  believe  my  words?* 

His  first  recorded  sermon  contains  a  remarkable  and  solemn 
attestation  to  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of 
his  own  relation  to  it  as  its  substance  and  supporter.  Think  not 
that  1  came  to  destroy  the  Law  or  the  Prophets;  I  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfill.  For,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven  and 
earth  pass,  one  jot,  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the 
Law  till  all  be  fulfilled.^  The  whole  of  this  discourse  is  an  expo¬ 
sition  of  the  true  principles  of  the  Old  Testament,  stripping  off  the 
rubbish  by  which  tradition  had  made  void  the  Law  of  God,  and 
enforcing  its  precepts  by  the  sanction  of  his  own  authority.  And 
in  one  of  his  last  discourses  after  his  resurrection:  Beginning  at 
Moses,  and  all  the  Prophets,  he  expounded  to  them  in  all  the  Scrip¬ 
ture,  the  things  concerning  himself.  And  he  said  unto  them,  These 
are  the  words  which  I  spake  unto  you,  while  I  was  yet  with  you — that 
all  things  which  were  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Pro¬ 
phets,  and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  me,  should  be  fulfilled.  Then, 
opened  he  their  understandings,  that  they  might  understand  the 
Scriptures.% 

In  this  distinct  enumeration  of  the  whole  of  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  Testament ;  the  assertion,  that  they  all  treated  of  him, 
and  that  their  principal  predictions  were  fulfilled  in  him  ;  and  in 
his  bestowal  of  divine  illumination  to  enable  them  to  under¬ 
stand  these  divine  oracles,  we  have  such  an  endorsement  of 
their  character  by  the  Truth  himself,  as  must  command  the  faith 
and  obedience  of  every  believer  in  him.  Had  no  objections  been 
raised  against  particular  doctrines  or  features  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  we  would  stop  here;  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  attestations 
to  the  truth  of  its  history,  given  by  the  continual  references,  and 
to  the  authority  of  its  precepts,  by  the  solemn  formal  declarations 


*  Jolm,  y  :  38-47. 

178 


|  Mai.,  v;  17,  etc. 


t  Luke,  ch.  24  throughout. 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS.  19 

of  the  Son  of  God.  But  some  popular  objections  to  its  complete¬ 
ness  and  perfection,  demand  a  brief  notice. 

1.  The  general  character  of  the  Old  Testament  being  then  ascer¬ 
tained  beyond  doubt,  our  first  inquiry  must  be  as  to  the  integrity 
and  completeness  of  the  collection.  For  it  is  manifest  that  their 
Divine  authority  being  admitted,  any  attempt  to  add  to  them  any 
human  writings,  or  to  take  away  those  which  were  from  God,  would 
be  a  crime  so  serious  in  its  consequences,  that  it  could  not  escape 
the  notice  of  him  who  severely  rebuked  even  the  verbal  traditions 
by  which  the  Jews  made  void  the  law  of  God.  Now  we  are  told 
by  some  that  a  great  many  inspired  books  have  been  lost ;  and 
they  enumerate  the  Prophecy  of  Enoch;  the  Book  of  the  Wars 
of  the  Lord;  the  Book  of  Joshua;  the  Book  of  Iddo,  the  Seer; 
the  Book  of  Nathan,  the  Prophet;  the  Acts  of  Rehoboam  ;  the  Book 
of  Jehu  the  son  of  Hanani ;  the  Five  Books  of  Solomon,  on  trees, 
beasts,  fowls,  serpents,  and  fishes — which  are  alluded  to  in  the 
Bible. 

If  the  case  were  so,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  objection  could  be 
raised  against  the  Divine  authority  of  the  books  we  have,  because 
of  the  Divine  authority  of  those  we  have  not;  for  it  is  not  supposed 
that  one  divinely  inspired  book  would  contradict  another.  Nor 
yet  can  we  see  how  the  loss  of  these  books  should  disprove  their 
inspiration,  much  less  the  inspiration  of  those  which  remain,  any 
more  than  the  want  of  a  record  of  the  multitude  of  words  and 
works  of  Jesus  himself  which  were  never  committed  to  writing,* 
should  be  an  argument  against  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Ser¬ 
mon  on  the  Mount.  It  will  hardly  be  asserted  that  God  is  bound 
to  reveal  to  us  every  thing  that  the  human  race  ever  did,  and  to 
preserve  such  records  through  all  time,  or  lose  his  right  to  demand 
our  obedience  to  a  plain  revelation  of  his  will ;  or  that  we  do  well 
to  neglect  the  salvation  of  our  own  souls  until  we  obtain  an  infal¬ 
lible  knowledge  of  the  Acts  of  Rehoboam. 

But  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  proof  that  any  of  these  were 
inspired  books,  or  that  some  of  them  were  books  at  all.  The  Bible 
no  where  says  that  Enoch  wrote  his  prophecy,  or  that  Solomon 
read  his  lectures  on  natural  history  ;  nor  of  what  religious  interest 
they  would  have  been  to  us  any  more  than  the  hard  questions  of 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  his  answers  to  them.  Though  the  loss 
of  these  ancient  chronicles  may  be  regretted  by  the  antiquarian, 


*  John,  xx :  30. 


179 


20 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


the  Christian  feels  not  at  all  concerned  about  it ;  knowing  as  he 
does  on  the  testimony  of  Christ,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  he 
and  his  Apostles  delivered  them  to  us,  contain  all  that  we  need  to 
know  in  order  to  repent  of  our  sins,  lead  holy  lives,  and  go  to 
heaven ;  and  that  we  have  the  very  same  Bible  of  which  Jesus  said 
They  have  Moses  and  the  Prophets ;  Jet  them  hear  them.  If  they 
believe  not  Moses  and  the  Prophets ,  neither  would  they  believe  though 
one  rose  from  the  dead  * 

2.  Another  objection  is,  that  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament 
was  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  New.  It  is  at  once 
acknowledged,  that  the  light  which  Christ  shed  on  our  rela¬ 
tions  to  God  and  to  our  brethren  of  mankind  is  so  much  clearer 
than  that  of  the  Old  Testament  that  we  see  our  duties  more  plainly, 
and  are  more  inexcusable  for  neglecting  them,  than  those  who  had 
not  the  benefit  of  Christ’s  teaching.  And  no  objection  can  be 
raised  against  God  for  not  sending  his  Son  sooner,  or  for  not  giving 
more  light  to  the  world  before  his  coming,  unless  it  can  be  shown 
that  he  is  debtor  to  mankind,  and  that  they  were  making  a  good 
use  of  the  light  he  gave  them.  So  that  the  question  is  not,  Did 
God  give  as  full  and  expanded  instructions  to  the  church  in  her 
infancy  as  he  has  given  in  her  maturity?  but,  Did  he  give  instruc¬ 
tions  of  a  different  character?  It  is  not,  Did  Christ  reveal  more 
than  Moses?  but,  Did  Christ  contradict  Moses?  And  here  at  the 
very  outset  we  are  met  by  Christ’s  own  solemn  formal  disclaimer 
of  any  such  intention ;  “  Think  not  that  I  come  to  destroy  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets.  I  come  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill.”  And  as  to 
the  actual  working  of  the  Christian  religion,  when  Paul  is  asked, 
“Is  the  Laic  then  against  the  promises  of  GodVf  he  indignantly 
replies  “  God  forbid!” 

But  it  is  urged,  “  Judaism  is  not  Christianity.  You  have  changed 
the  sabbath,  abolished  the  sacrifices,  trampled  upon  the  rules  of 
living,  eating  and  visiting  only  with  the  peculiar  people,  you 
neglect  the  passover,  and  drop  circumcision,  the  seal  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  all  on  the  authority  of  Christ.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that 
these  are  not  essential  elements  of  the  Old  Testament  religion  ?” 

Undoubtedly.  Outward  ceremonies  of  any  kind  never  were  essen¬ 
tial  parts  of  religion:  “  I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice,”  is  an 
Old  Testament  proverb,  which  clearly  tells  us  that  outward  cere¬ 
monies  are  merely  means  toward  the  great  end  of  all  religion 


180 


*  Luke,  xvi :  29. 


f  Gal.,  iii:  21. 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


21 


“  The  law ,”  says  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  pen  of  Paul,  “  was  our 
schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ .”  The  bread  of  heavenly  truth 
is  served  out  to  God’s  children  now  on  ten  thousand  wooden 
tables  instead  of  one  brazen  altar ;  but  it  is  made  of  the  same  corn 
of  heaven,  it  is  dispensed  by  the  same  hand  of  love,  to  a  larger 
family,  it  is  true,  but  received  and  eaten  in  the  exercise  of  the 
very  same  religious  feelings,  by  any  hearer  of  the  gospel  in  New 
York,  as  by  Abraham  on  Moriah.  By  faith  in  Christ  the  sinner 
now  is  justified,  “ Even  as  Abraham  believed  God  and  it  was 
imputed  to  him  for  righteousness  A  So  says  one  who  knew  both 
law  and  gospel  well.  “  Do  we  then  make  void  the  law  through 
faith  %  God  forbid!  Yea  we  establish  the  law!”*  The  Epistles 
to  the  Homans  and  to  the  Hebrews,  are  just  demonstrations  of  this 
truth,  that  the  law  was  the  blossom — the  gospel  the  fruit. 

But  it  is  alleged  that  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  could 
not  but  be  defective,  as  it  wanted  the  doctrines  of  immortality  and 
the  resurrection ;  of  which  it  is  alleged,  the  Old  Testament  saints 
were  ignorant.  It  were  easy  to  prove,  from  their  own  words  and 
conduct,  that  Job,  Abraham,  David  and  Daniel,  were  not  ignorant 
of  these  great  doctrines. f  But  the  manner  in  which  our  Lord 
proves  the  truth  of  the  resurrection,  by  a  reference  to  it  as  unde¬ 
niably  taught  in  the  Old  Testament,  must  ever  silence  this  objec¬ 
tion.  “  But  as  touching  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  have  ye  not 
read  that  which  was  spoken  unto  you  by  God,  saying,  *  I  am  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob / 
God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living.”! 

3.  Again,  however,  it  is  contended,  “that  the  morality  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  narrow  and  bigoted ;  requiring  indeed,  the 
observance  of  charity  to  the  covenant  people,  but  allowing  Israel 
to  hate  all  others  as  enemies,  and  as  well  expressed  in  the  text, 
Thou  shall  love  thy  neighbor  and  hate  thine  enemy.”  $ 

But  let  it  be  noticed,  that  this  is  no  text  of  Scripture,  nor  does 
our  Lord  so  quote  it.  He  does  not  say  it  is  so  written,  but,  ye  have 
heard  it  said  by  them  of  old  time.  The  first  part  is  God’s  truth : 
the  second  is  the  devil’s  addition  to  it,  which  Christ  clears  away 
and  denounces.  It  were  easy  to  quote  multitudes  of  passages  from 
the  Old  Testament,  commanding  Israel  to  show  kindness  to  the 

*  Romans,  chs.  iv,  v,  and  vi.  f  Job,  xix  :  25.  Psalm,  xvi :  10.  Hebrews,  xi:  13-16. 
Daniel,  xii :  2-3.  f  Matthew,  xxii :  32.  2  Matthew,  y  :  43. 


181 


22 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


stranger,  and  a  whole  host  of  promises,  that  in  them  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  should  he  blessed;  any  one  of  which  would 
sufficiently  refute  the  foolish  notion,  that  the  morality  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  geographical,  and  its  charity  merely  national. 
But  the  simple  fact,  that  the  most  sublime  sanction  of  world-wide 
benevolence  which  ever  fell  even  from  the  lips  of  Christ  himself, 
was  uttered  by  him  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Old  Testament,  conclusively  confutes  this  dogma.  The  Golden 
Buie  was  no  new  discovery,  unless  its  author  was  mistaken,  for 
he  says:  Therefore  all  things  that  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to 
you ,  do  ye  even  so  to  them ,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets.* 
lie  declares  the  very  basis  and  foundation  of  the  whole  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  religion  to  be  those  eternal  principles  of  godliness  and  charity, 
which  he  quotes  in  the  very  words  of  the  Law :  Then  one  of  them 
which  10 as  a  lawyer  asked  him,  a  question,  tempting  him,  and  saying , 
Master,  which  is  the  great  commandment  in  the  law?  Jesus  said 
unto  him,  thou  shall  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it;  thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments  hang  all  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets. f  The  Law  and  the  Prophets  then  taught  genuine 
world-wide  benevolence,  Christ  being  witness  ;  and  the  moral  law 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  moral  law  of  the  New  Testament,  if 
we  may  believe  the  Lawgiver. 

4.  “  Still,  it  is  alleged,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  the  writers  of 
the  Old  Testament  breathed  a  spirit  of  vindictiveness,  and  impre¬ 
cated  curses  on  their  enemies,  utterly  at  variance  with  the  precepts 
of  the  gospel,  which  commands  us  to  bless  and  curse  not ;  and  even 
in  their  solemn  devotions  uttered  sentiments  unfit  for  the  mouth  of 
any  Christian  ;  nor  that  their  views  of  the  character  of  God  were 
stern  and  gloomy,  and  that  they  represented  the  Hebrew  Jehovah 
as  an  unforgiving  and  vengeful  being,  utterly  different  from  the 
kind  and  loving  Father  whom  Christ  delighted  to  reveal.” 

This,  if  the  truth  were  told,  is  the  grand  objection  to  the  Old 
Testament.  The  holy  and  righteous  sin-hating  God  presented  in 
its  history,  is  the  object  of  dislike.  The  God  who  drowned  the  old 
world — destroyed  Sodom  and  Gomorrha  by  fire  from  heaven — 

*  Matthew,  vii:  12. 


182 


-j-  Matthew,  xxiii:  35. 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


23 


commanded  the  extermination  of  the  lewd  and  bloody  Canaanites — 
thundered  his  curses  against  sinners  of  every  land  and  every  age, 
saying  “  Cursed  be  he  that  confirmeth  not  all  the  words  of  this  law 
to  do  them ” — requiring  all  the  people  to  say  Amen * — is  not  the 
God  whom  Universalists  can  find  in  their  hearts  to  adore.  A 
mild,  easy,  good-natured  being,  who  -would  allow  men  to  live  and 
die  in  sin  without  any  punishment,  would  suit  them  better.  They 
try  to  think  that  he  is  altogether  such  an  one  as  themselves,  and 
an  approver  of  their  sin. 

But  it  is  worth  wrhile  to  inquire  whether  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  be  in  this  respect  any  thing  different  from  the  He¬ 
brew  Jehovah,  or  whether  the  gospel  has  in  the  least  degree 
lessened  his  displeasure  against  iniquity.  Paul  thought  not  that 
he  was  a  different  person,  when  he  said,  “  We  know  him  who  hath 
said,  Vengeance  belongeth  unto  vie,  I  will  repay  saith  the  Lord.”! 
Jesus  thought  not  that  ho  was  more  lenient  to  sinners  wdien  he 
cried,  “  Woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin  !  Woe  unto  thee,  Bethsaida !  Thou 
Capernaum,  which  art  exalted  to  heaven  shalt  be  brought  down  to 
hell.  It  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the  land  of  Sodom  in  the  day 
of  judgment  than  for  thee.”X  It  is  not  in  the  Old  Testament,  but 
in  the  New,  that  wre  are  told  that  Jesus  himself  shall  come  “  In 
faming  fire,  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not  God,  and  obey 
not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  who  shall  be  punished  with 
everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  from  the 
glory  of  his  power.”l  It  is  not  an  old,  bigoted  Hebrew  Prophet 
giving  a  vision  of  the  Hebrew  Jehovah,  but  the  beloved  disciple 
who  leaned  on  Jesus’  breast,  picturing  the  Savior  himself,  wrho 
says,  “He  was  clothed  in  a  vesture  dipped  in  blood ;  and  his  name 
is  called  the  Word  of  God .  And  the  armies  which  were  in  heaven 
followed  him  upon  white  horses,  clothed  in  fine  linen,  white  and 
clean ;  and  out  of  his  mouth  goeth  a  sharp  sword,  that  with  it  he 
shoidd  smite  the  nations;  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod,  of  iron; 
and  he  treadeth  the  ivine-press  of  the  fierceness  and  wrath  of 
Almighty  God.\\ 

Let  no  man  imagine  that  the  New  Testament  offers  impunity 
to  the  wicked,  or  that  the  Old  Testament  denies  mercy  to  the  re¬ 
penting  sinner,  or  that  Christ  exhibited  any  other  God  than  the 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob — the  same  Hebrew  Jehovah 


*  Deut.  xxvii :  26.  f  Heb.  x :  30.  |  Matthew  xi :  21. 

g  2  Thos.  1  cli.  |l  Revelation  19  ch. 

183 


24 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


■who  commands  the  wicked  to  forsake  his  way ,  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts ;  and  to  return  unto  the  Lord ,  and  he  will  have 
mercy  upon  him ;  and  to  our  God  and  he  icill  abundantly  pardon.* 
It  is  exceedingly  strange  that  those  who  dwell  upon  the  paternal 
character  of  God,  as  a  distinctive  feature  of  Christ’s  personal  teach¬ 
ing,  should  have  forgotten  that  the  hymns  of  the  Old  Testament 
church,  a  thousand  years  before  his  coming,  were  full  of  this 
endearing  relation;  that  it  was  by  the  first  Hebrew  Prophet  that 
the  Hebrew  Jehovah  declared,  “  Israel  is  my  Son,  my  frst  born; 
therefore  I  say  unto  thee  let  my  Son  go  that  he  may  serve  me;’' f 
and  that  by  the  last  of  them  he  urges  Israel  to  obedience  by  this 
tender  appeal.  “  If  I  be  a  Father  where  is  mine  honor  ?”%  It 
was  not  Christ,  but  David — one  of  those  gloomy,  stern,  Hebrew 
Prophets — who  penned  that  noble  hymn  to  our  Father  in  heaven, 
which  Christ  illustrated  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount: 

“The  Lord  is  merciful  and  gracious, 

Slow  to  anger  and  plenteous  in  mercy. 

He  will  not  always  chide, 

Neither  will  he  keep  his  anger  for  ever. 

He  hath  not  dealt  with  us  after  our  sins, 

Nor  rewarded  us  according  to  our  iniquities; 

For  as  the  heaven  is  high  above  the  earth, 

So  great  is  his  mercy  to  them  that  fear  him; 

As  far  as  east  is  from  the  west, 

So  far  hath  he  removed  our  transgressions  from  us. 
Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children, 

So  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him.” 

Psalm  103. 

It  is  utter  ignorance  of  the  Old  Testament  which  prompts  any 
one  to  imagine  that  it  presents  any  other  character  of  God  than 
“  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  and  long  suffer¬ 
ing,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thou¬ 
sands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin,  and  that  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty. ”§  This  is  the  name  which  God  pro¬ 
claimed  to  Moses,  and  this  is  the  character  which  he  proclaimed 
in  Christ,  when  he  cried  on  the  cross,  “My  God!  My  God!  Why 
hast  thou  forsaken  met  But  tliou  art  holy,  thou  that  inhabitest  the 
praises  of  Israel.”  |j  Justice  and  mercy  are  united  in  Christ  dying 
for  the  ungodty. 


*  Ipaiab.  ch.  55.  f  Exodus  iv  :  22.  J  Mai.  i.  g  Exodus,  ch.  xxxiv.  H  Psalm,  xxii. 

184 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


25 


It  is  untrue  to  say  that  the  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament 
were  actuated  by  a  spirit  of  malice,  or  of  revenge  for  personal 
injuries  as  such,  in  praying  for,  or  prophesying  destruction  on  the 
inveterate  enemies  of  God  and  his  cause.*  Of  all  scripture 
characters,  David  has  been  most  defamed  for  vindictiveness  ;  but 
surely  never  was  man  more  free  from  any  such  spirit,  than  the 
persecuted  fugitive,  who,  with  his  enemy  in  his  hand  in  the  cave, 
and  his  confidential  advisers  urging  him  to  take  his  life,  cut  olf 
his  skirt  instead  of  his  head  ;  and  on  another  occasion  prevented 
the  stroke  which  would  have  smitten  the  sleeping  Saul  to  the 
earth,  and  sent  back  even  the  spear  and  the  cruse  of  water,  the 
trophies  of  his  generosity.  When  cursed  himself,  and  defamed  as 
a  vengeful  shodder  of  blood  by  the  Benjamite,  he  could  restrain 
the  fury  of  his  followers,  protect  the  life  of  the  ruffianly  traitor, 
and  thus  appeal  to  God  as  the  witness  of  his  innocence : 

“0  Lord,  my  God!  if  I  have  done  this, 

If  there  be  iniquity  in  my  hands. 

If  I  have  rewarded  evil  to  him  that  was  at  peace  with  me, 

Yea  I  have  delivered  him  that  without  cause  was  mine  enemy.,;f 

It  is  true  that  he  does  bitterly  curse  several  living  persons ;  of 
whom  it  is  observable  that  some  had  done  him  no  sort  of  personal 
injury  ;  as  Doeg  the  Edomite — the  Nena  Sahib  of  his  day — who 
anticipated  the  scenes  of  Cawnpore  in  the  streets  of  Nob;  by  mer¬ 
cilessly  butchering  unoffending  men,  helpless  women,  and  innocent 
babes.  But  surely  no  friend  of  humanity  can  imagine  that  it  is 
improper  that  the  chief  magistrate  of  Israel,  anointed  for  the  very 
purpose  of  being  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  should  express  his  righteous 
indignation  against  such  atrocities  ;  nor  confound  such  public  exe¬ 
cration  with  the  petty  gnawings  of  private  revenge.  Still  less  can 
the  fearer  of  God  doubt  the  propriety  of  his  expressing  by  the 
mouth  of  his  Prophet,  that  displeasure  which  he  signally  displayed 
by  his  providence,  scathing  and  blasting  the  accursed  wretch  into 
a  terror  to  all  bloody  and  deceitful  men  who  shall  read  their  own 
warning  in  his  doom. 

“God  shall  likewise  destroy  thee  for  ever, 

He  shall  take  thee  away  and  pluck  thee  from  thy  dwelling, 
And  root  thee  out  of  the  land  of  the  living.;,$ 

*  2  Tim.  iv  :  14.  f  Psalm  vii. 

}  Psalms,  7  and  52,  and  2  Samuel,  xyi  cli.,  and  xxi  and  xxii  chs. 

185 


26 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


We  have  the  most  solemn  assurance  that  every  one  of  the  his¬ 
torical  incidents  of  scripture  is  recorded  for  our  instruction,  and 
that  every  prophecy  gives  a  lesson  to  all  ages.  Now  all  these 
things  happened  unto  them  for  ensamples,  and  they  are  wiitten  for 
our  admonition ,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come.*  The 
imprecations  of  the  Bible  against  individual  sinners  are  the  gibbets 
on  which  these  malefactors  are  hung  up  for  warning  to  all  men  to 
flee  the  crimes  that  brought  them  to  that  fate. 

It  is  put  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt,  by  the  combined  testi¬ 
mony  of  the  Lord  and  his  Apostles,  that  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  the  curses  which  David  uttered,  he  spoke  in  the  person  of  Christ 
himself,  of  whom  he  was  a  type;  and  with  direct  reference  to  the 
crimes  and  punishment  of  his  enemies.  Thus  the  69th  Psalm,  and 
the  109th,  pre-eminently  the  cursing  Psalms,  are  most  explicitly 
and  repeatedl}r  asserted  by  Christ,  by  Peter  and  by  John,  to  belong 
to  Christ,  and  to  express  his  very  words ;  This  scripture  must 
needs  have  been  fill  filed,  which  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  mouth  of 
David,  spake  before  concerning  Judas,  which  was  guide  to  them 
that  took  Jesus.  For  it  is  written  in  the  book  of  Psalms,  “  Let  his 
habitation  be  desolate,  and,  let  no  man  dwell  therein.”  And,  “  His 
bishopric  let  another  take.”\  If  any  one  feels  reluctant  to  imagine 
that  such  cursings  should  fall  from  the  lips  of  the  merciful  Savior, 
let  him  remember  that  the  most  awful  curse  which  shall  ever  fall 
on  the  ears  of  terrified  men,  shall  be  pronounced  by  Jesus  him¬ 
self,  “ Depart  ye  cursed  into  everlasting  f  re,  prepared  for  the  Devil 
and  his  angelsJX  The  solemn  facts  of  the  Bible  will  not  accomo¬ 
date  themselves  to  our  likes  and  dislikes.  Christ  loves  righteous¬ 
ness  and  hates  iniquity ;  in  the  Bible  he  takes  leave  to  say  so, 
and  he  expects  his  people  to  share  his  feelings,  and  be  willing  to 
express  them  on  fit  occasions. 

Personal  revenge  and  curses  for  mere  personal  injuries  are  for¬ 
bidden  in  the  New  Testament  as  well  as  in  the  Old.  But  it  was 
an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  who  cried,  “  If  any  man  love  not  our 
/  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  accursed.  Though  we  or  an  angel 
from  heaven  bring  any  other  gospel  unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed.” 
Nor  until  we  can  in  some  measure  feel  this  holy  indignation  against 
sin,  and  this  burning  desire  to  see  all  tyranny,  superstition,  oppres- 

*  1  Cor.,  x  ch. ; 

f  John,  ii :  17,  xv  :  25.  xix  :  28;  Acts,  i:  20;  Matthexv,  xxv:  41. 

t  Gal.  i :  9.  1  Cor.,  xvi :  22.  Rev.,  chs.  xxix,  xx  and  xxi. 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


27 


sion,  licentiousness  and  profanity,  crushed  and  banished  from  the 
earth,  can  we  pray  in  truth  “  Thy  kingdom  come.”  Still  less  can 
we  be  prepared  for  the  rejoicings  of  heaven  over  the  conquest  of 
the  enemies  of  God  and  man  ;  Rejoice  over  her  thou  heaven ,  and 
ye  holy  Apostles  arid  Prophets ,  for  God  hath  avenged  you  on  her. 

Reader  you  hope  to  go  to  heaven  ;  but  it  may  be  a  very  different 
place  from  what  you  dream  of.  Did  you  ever  study  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  the  saints  there?  Are  you  washed  from  your  sins?  Is 
your  mind  purified  from  your  carnal  notions?  Unless  a  man  be 
born  again  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  Are  your  likes 
and  dislikes,  your  sentiments  and  sympathies,  your  understanding 
and  your  will,  all  brought  into  subjection  to  Christ?  Can  you 
heartily  love  and  adore  a  sin-hating,  sin-avenging  God?  Or  do 
you  shrink  back  in  terror  or  dislike  from  God’s  denunciations  of 
wrath  against  the  wicked?  Would  your  benevolence  lead  you  to 
deal  alike  with  the  righteous  and  the  wicked ;  and  to  abhor  the 
thought  of  destroying  them  that  destroy  the  earth  ?  Then  how  will 
you  join  in  the  hallelujahs  of  heaven ;  for  God’s  judgments  are  the 
themes  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  from  saints  and  angels  there, 
and  this  is  their  song: 

“  Hallelujah,  salvation,  and  glory,  and  honor,  and  power,  unto 
the  Lord,  our  God,  for  true  and  righteous  are  his  judgments ;  for 
he  hath  judged  the  great  whore,  which  did  corrupt  the  earth  with 
her  fornication,  and  hath  avenged  the  blood  of  his  servants  at  her 
hands.  And  again  they  said,  Hallelujah  I  And  her  smoke  rose  up 
for  ever  and  ever.  And  the  four  and  twenty  elders,  and  the  four 
living  creatures  fell  down  and  worshiped  God,  that  sat  on  the  throne, 
saying,  Amen!  Hallelujah !  And  a  voice  came  out  of  the  throne 
saying,  Praise  our  God  all  ye  his  servants ;  and  ye  that  fear  him,, 
both  small  and  great.  And  I  heard,  as  it  ivere,  a  great  multitude, 
and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  mighty 
thunders,  saying,  Hallelujah!  For  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent 
reigneth/’* 

And  now,  if  this  be  the  character  of  God — if  he  be  indeed  one 
who  hates  iniquity,  and  punishes  impenitent  sinners,  we  need  not 
wonder  that  those  who  spake  his  word  should  utter  imprecations, 
either  in  the  Old  Testament  or  in  the  New;  but  rather  bless  the 
mercy  which  warns  before  justice  strikes,  and  seeks  by  the  terrors 


*  Revelation,  chs.  xix,  xx,  xxi. 


187 


28 


MOSES  AND  THE  PROPHETS. 


of  the  Lord  to  persuade  men  from  perdition.  The  curses  of  the 
Bible  are  all  denounced  against  the  enemies  of  God,  with  the  design 
of  showing  sinners  their  danger,  and  leading  them  to  repentance. 

The  conclusion  then  of  our  investigation  is,  that  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  is  the  word  of  God  no  less  than  the  New — that  it  is  in  no  re¬ 
spect  contrary  to  it — that  all  its  parts — the  Law  and  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Psalms — are  of  Divine  authority — that  all  its  contents  were 
written  by  Divine  direction,  whether  prophecy  or  history,  ceremony 
or  morality,  promise  or  threatening,  curses  or  blessings.  It  is  of 
the  Old  Testament  principally  that  the  Holy  Ghost  declares  “  All 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God;  and  is  prof  table  for 
doctrine ,  for  reproof,  for  instruction,  and  correction  in  righteous¬ 
ness ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished 
unto  all  good  works”* 


*  2  Timothy,  iii :  16. 


No.  31 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 

A  little  or  superficial  knowledge  of  philosophy  may  incline  a  man’s 
mind  to  Atheism ;  hut  depth  in  philosophy  hringeth  men’s  minds 
about  to  religion.  Bacon. 

When  skeptics,  who  are  determined  not  to  believe  in  the  Bible, 
find  the  historical  evidences  of  its  genuineness,  authority,  and  in¬ 
spiration,  impregnable  against  the  assaults  of  criticism,  they  turn 
their  attention  to  some  other  mode  of  attack,  and  of  late  years  have 
selected  their  weapons  from  the  physical  sciences.  The  argument 
thus  raised  is,  that  the  Bible  cannot  be  the  word  of  God,  because  it 
asserts  facts  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  science.  Of  this  warfare 
Yoltaire  may  be  considered  the  leader,  in  his  celebrated  attack  on 
the  chemical  processes  recorded  in  scripture ;  in  which  he  exposed 
himself  to  the  ridicule  of  all  the  chemists  and  metallurgists  in 
Europe,  by  denying  the  possibility  of  dissolving  the  golden  calf: 
the  solution  of  gold  being  actually  found  in  every  gilder’s  shop  in 
Paris,  and  known  even  to  coiners  and  forgers  for  hundreds  of  years 
before  he  made  this  notable  discovery.  The  result  was  ominous. 

The  whole  circle  of  the  sciences  has  been  ransacked  for  such 
arguments,  and  especially  has  every  new  discovery  been  hailed  by 
skeptics  as  an  ally  to  their  cause,  until  further  acquaintance  has 
demonstrated  that  the  stranger,  too,  was  in  alliance  with  religion. 
Thus,  when  Geology  began  to  upheave  his  Titanic  form,  he  was 
eagerly  greeted  as  a  being  undoubtedly  not  of  celestial,  but  rather 
of  subterranean,  or  even  infernal  origin,  and  so  willing  to  employ 
his  gigantic  powers  in  the  assault  upon  heaven,  and  able  to  over¬ 
whelm  the  Bible  and  the  Church  under  the  ruins  of  former  worlds. 
But  now  that  skeptics  have  discovered  the  proofs  he  gives  of  the 
presence  of  the  Almighty  on  this  world  of  ours,  they  are  getting 
shy  of  his  acquaintance,  and  are  cultivating  the  society  of  some 
new  and  juvenile  visitors  from  the  chambers  of  Animal  Magnetism 
and  Biology.  The  same  scene  will  doubtless  be  acted  over  again ; 
and  these  infantile  strangers,  when  able  to  give  distinct  utterance 
to  the  facts  of  their  developed  consciousness,  will  bear  testimony  to 
the  truth  of  God. 

Such  objections  to  the  Bible  are  very  rarely  brought  forward  by 

189 


2 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


truly  scientific  men.  It  is  a  phenomenon,  like  the  advent  of  a  great 
comet,  to  find  a  man  profoundly  versed  in  any  science,  attack  the 
Bible.  Your  third  or  fourth  rate  men  of  learning  attain  distinction 
in  this  field.  An  anti-Bible  writer  or  lecturer  always  has  been 
promoted  to  that  high  eminence  from  the  school-room,  or  the  edito¬ 
rial  sanctum  of  an  unsuccessful  newspaper ;  or  his  patients  have 
not  sufficiently  appreciated  his  physic,  or  he  has  failed  in  getting  a 
patent-right  for  his  wonderful  perpetual  motion,  or  possibly  he  has 
enlarged  his  practical  knowledge  of  science  in  the  laboratory  of 
some  Western  College,  and  had  his  head  turned  by  being  asked  to 
hear  the  mathematical  recitations  during  the  sickness  of  some  pro¬ 
fessor.  But  to  hear  of  men  like  Galileo,  Kepler,  Boyle,  Newton, 
and  Leibnitz,  or  of  Lyell,  Mantell,  Herscbell,  Agassiz,  Hitchcock, 
Balbo,  Nichol,  or  Kosse,  heading  an  attack  upon  Christianity, 
would  be  an  unprecedented  phenomenon.  Such  men  are  profound¬ 
ly  impressed  with  the  thorough  agreement  between  the  facts  of 
nature  rightly  observed,  and  the  declarations  of  the  Bible  rightly 
interpreted. 

Nevertheless,  the  other  class  being  both  the  most  numerous  and 
the  most  noisy,  make  up  by  perseverance  for  their  deficiency  of 
information,  and  counterbalance  their  ignorance  by  their  assur¬ 
ance.  Such  writers,  assuming  that  they  have  outstripped  all  the 
philosophers  of  former  days,  will  tell  you  how  foolishly  David  and 
Kepler,  and  Bacon  and  Newton,  and  Herschell  dreamed  of  the 
heavens  declaring  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  the  firmament  showing 
his  handy  work  ;  “  while  at  the  present  time,  and  for  minds  properly 
familiarized  with  true  astronomical  philosophy,  the  heavens  display 
no  other  powers  than  those  of  natural  laws,  and  no  other  glory 
than  that  of  Hipparchus,  of  Kepler,  of  Newton,  and  of  all  who 
have  helped  to  discover  them.”  Theology  belongs  only  to  the 
infancy  of  the  human  intellect ;  metaphysical  philosophy  is  the 
amusement  of  youth;  but  the  full  grown  man  has  learned  to  relin¬ 
quish  both  religion  and  reason,  and  comes  to  the  “  positive  sta-te 
of  science  in  which  the  human  mind,  acknowledging  the  impossi¬ 
bility  of  obtaining  absolute  knowledge,  abandons  the  search  after 
the  origin  and  destination  of  the  universe,  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  secret  causes  of  phenomena.”  The  crown  of  modern  science 
is  ultimately  to  be  placed  upon  the  brow  of  Atheism ;  but  long 
before  that  eagerly-desired  achievement,  the  old  Bible  theology  is 
to  be  buried  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  resurrection,  under  moun- 
190 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


3 


tains  of  natural  laws,  and  monuments  of  scientific  discovery. 
These  assertions,  confidently  made,  and  perseveringly  reiterated  in 
the  ears  of  ungodly  men  ignorant  of  the  facts,  of  impetuous  youths 
eager  to  throw  off  the  restraints  of  religion,  of  Christians  weak  in 
the  faith,  and  even  poured  into  the  unsuspecting  mind  of  child¬ 
hood,  produce  the  most  painful,  and  often  fatal  results ;  and  it 
becomes  the  imperative  duty  of  the  bishops  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
not  to  allow  them  to  pass  unchallenged,  but  to  convince  the  gain- 
sayers,  and  stop  the  mouths  of  these  unruly  and  vain  talkers ;  or,  if 
that  be  not  possible,  to  make  their  folly  manifest  to  all  men.  The 
weapons  for  such  a  service  are  well  tried  and  abundant,  and  the 
difficulty  lies  only  in  making  a  proper  selection. 

At  first  view,  the  extinction  of  religion  by  science  seems  very 
unlikely.  It  is  as  unlikely  that  any  thing  that  an  infidel  says 
about  religion  should  be  true,  as  that  a  blind  man  should  describe 
the  sun  correctly.  Did  you  ever  know  one  who  could  quote  three 
verses  of  scripture  correctly,  or  even  read  a  chapter  accurately  and 
attentively,  with  the  book  before  him  ?  I  shall  show  you  presently 
that  learned  infidels  make  the  grossest  blunders  respecting  the 
plainest  scripture  records  of  scientific  facts.  It  is  very  un¬ 
likely  that  infidels,  who  lay  no  claim  to  prophetic  inspiration, 
should  make  any  predictions  about  religion  more  reliable  than 
those  they  have  been  telling  so  abundantly  for  two  hundred  years 
past,  respecting  the  immediate  overthrow  of  Christianity  and  the 
Bible ;  which,  nevertheless,  has  been  going  on  conquering  new 
kingdoms  every  year,  its  missionaries  outstripping  scientific  ardor 
in  exploring  the  mysteries  of  African  Geography,  honorably  receiv¬ 
ing  the  prizes  which  the  infidel  Yolney  instituted  for  philological 
proficiency,  and  printing  Bibles  from  Voltaire’s  printing-press. 
And  it  is  very  unlikely  that  these  physical  sciences,  so  long  wor¬ 
shipers  in  the  terhple  of  God,  should  now  become  impious :  as 
unlikely  as  that  John  Angel  James,  or  D’Aubigne,  or  Buchanan, 
or  Hodge,  or  Barnes  should  now,  in  their  old  days,  renounce  the 
Bible,  and  blaspheme  God.  What!  Astronomy,  and  Geology,  and 
Zoology,  and  Botany,  and  Ethnography,  that  were  suckled  at  the 
breast  of  the  Bible,  raise  their  hands  against  the  mother  that 
bore  them !  Incredible !  These  young  sciences  made  an  early 
profession  of  religion;  taught  sabbath- school  in  the  days  of  Job, 
Zophar,  and  Elihu ;  wrote  sacred  poetry,  and  were  licensed  to 
preach,  in  the  days  of  Solomon ;  poured  forth  prophetic  raptures  in 

191 


4 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


the  days  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah ;  wrote  volumes 
on  the  politics  of  Christianity  in  Babylon,  and  painted  glorious 
visions  of  the  victories  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  dazzling  views  of 
the  landscapes  of  paradise  restored  in  Patmos  ;  employed  the  gigan¬ 
tic  intellect  of  Newton,  the  elegant  pen  of  Paley,  the  eloquence  of 
Chalmers,  Ilerschell’s  heaven-piercing  eye,  and  Miller's  muscular 
arm,  to  guard  the  outer  courts  of  the  sanctuary,  while  they  sung 
sublime  anthems  to  the  music  of  David’s  harp  within ;  and  have 
they  now,  after  such  a  life  of  devotion,  relinquished  all  these  sub¬ 
limities  and  beatitudes,  taken  lodgings  in  the  stye,  and  renounced 
their  faith  in  God,  and  hope  of  heaven,  for  the  infidel  maxim,  “Let 
us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die  ”  ?  God  forbid  ! 

No  rational  man  will  be  easily  convinced  of  the  truth  of  such  an 
unlikely  accusation.  Least  of  all  will  he  believe  it,  on  the  say-so 
of  men  of  whom  he  knows  little,  save  that  they  are  not  much 
acquainted  with  either  religion  or  the  sciences.  I,  for  one,  mean 
to  enquire  for  the  truth  from  reliable  informants.  The  object  of 
this  and  the  following  Tracts  is  to  interrogate  these  physical  sci¬ 
ences  themselves  whether  they  are  really  becoming  skeptical  of  the 
being  of  the  Living  God,  and  hostile  to  Holy  Scripture  ;  or  whether 
they  have  lately  given  any  utterances  wThich  would  give  occasion  to 
such  a  suspicion.  I  do  not  propose,  of  course,  to  attempt  giving  an 
outline  of  Astronomy,  Geology,  Zoology,  Ethnography,  &c.,  in  the 
limits  of  this  or  subsequent  Tracts ;  but  confining  our  attention  to 
Astronomy,  I  shall  assume  that  my  readers  are  possessed  of  such  a 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  that  science  as  our  common  schools 
afford  every  intelligent  youth — or,  should  their  early  education  be 
defective  in  this  respect,  I  entreat  them  to  do  themselves  the  justice, 
and  enjoy  the  high  gratification,  of  perusing  some  of  the  lucid  and 
interesting  popular  wrorks  on  the  subject  to  be  found  in  every  book¬ 
store,  or  in  our  public  libraries* — and  proceed  to  select  from  the 


*  Kendall's  Uranography  and  Atlas  of  the  Heavens  is  a  cheap  and  useful  manual.  Sir 
John  Herscheirs  Outlines  of  Astronomy  is  &  larger  and  more  scientific  work.  Somer¬ 
ville's  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences  displays  the  wide  range  of  modern  discovery 
in  Astronomy,  and  its  connected  sciences.  The  attractive  works  of  the  Christian  Phi¬ 
losopher,  Thos.  Dick,  L.L.  D.,  The  Siderial  Heavens,  The  Solar  System,  and  Celestial 
Scenery,  will  ever  be  as  popular  as  they  are  perspicuous  and  original.  The  condensed, 
lucid,  frigid  Cosmos  of  the  encyclopediac  Humboldt,  will  interest  those  who  understand 
the  technology  of  the  science.  The  discoveries  of  Lord  Rosse's  magnificent  telescopes 
are  described  with  a  simple,  majestic  eloquence  not  unworthy  of  the  grandeur  of  tho 
theme,  by  J.  P.  Nicholl,  L.L.  D.,  in  Contemplations  on  the  Solar  System,  and  tho 

192 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


5 


vast  mass  of  modern  discoveries  those  which  have  a  bearing  upon 
the  question,  Is  the  progress  of  astronomical  discovery  hostile,  or 
favorable ,  to  natural  and  revealed  religion  ? 

The  progress  of  astronomical  science  has  swept  away  the  alleged 
facts  on  which  all  systems  of  Atheism  have  been  based. 

1.  It  has  refuted  the  fundamental  dogma  of  Atheism,  that  the 
universe  is  infinite,  and  therefore  self-existent.  The  assertion  is 
confidently  made  by  Atheists  and  Pantheists,  that  the  universe  has 
no  boundaries ;  not  merely  none  which  we  can  see,  but  that  it  actu¬ 
ally  fills  all  immensity:  suns  succeeding  suns,  and  firmament  clus¬ 
tering  beyond  firmament,  throughout  infinite  space. 

It  is  indispensable  for  the  Atheist  not  only  to  assert,  but  to 
prove  this  to  be  the  fact,  if  he  would  convince  himself,  or  any 
other  person,  that  the  universe  had  no  Creator,  but  exists  by  the 
necessity  of  its  own  nature  ;  for  that  which  exists  by  the  necessity 
of  its  own  nature,  must  exist  in  all  time,  and  in  every  place.  No 
reason  can  be  given  why  self-existent  suns,  planets,  and  moons, 
should  exist  in  any  one  portion  of  space,  and  not  exist  in  any  other 
similar  portion  of  space.  For  if  such  a  reason  could  be  given,  that 
reason  must  show  a  cause  for  their  existence  in  the  one  place,  and 
their  non-existence  in  another ;  and  that  cause  must  have  existed 
before  the  universe,  and  must  have  been  a  cause  sufficient  to  pro¬ 
duce  the  effect.  This  sufficient  cause  includes  ability  to  produce, 
wisdom  to  arrange,  and  force  to  put  in  motion  all  the  powers  of 
the  universe:  qualities  which  reside  only  in  an  intelligent  being. 
This  is  the  cause  which  the  Bible  asserts  when  it  says,  “  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,”  and  which 
Atheists  deny  when  they  assert  that  “  the  universe  is  eternal  and 
infinite.” 

Now,  this  fundamental  article  of  the  creed  of  infidels  is  utterly 
incapable  of  proof.  If  the  fact  were  really  so,  they  never  could 
prove  it.  They  acknowledge  no  revelation  from  an  infinite  under¬ 
standing,  but  found  their  belief  on  the  knowledge  of  a  number  of 
finite  and  ignorant  beings.  Before  they  are  competent  to  pro¬ 
nounce  upon  the  extent  of  the  universe,  they  must  explore  it  thor¬ 
oughly  ;  which,  when  they  shall  have  done,  they  will  have  demon¬ 
strated  that  it  has  boundaries,  seeing  they  have  discovered  them ; 


Architecture  of  the  Heavens.  The  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery,  as  its  name  imports, 
records  t-lie  latest  discoveries. 

13 


193 


6 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


bat,  if  they  have  not  thoroughly  explored  the  universe,  they  can 
not  say  that  it  is  infinite,  because  they  do  not  know.  The  very 
utmost,  then,  which  could  possibly  be  asserted  on  the  matter 
would  be,  not  that  the  universe  has  no  boundaries,  but  that  man 
has  never  reached  them.  As  in  the  case  of  ocean  soundings,  if  we 
cannot  find  bottom,  we  are  not  therefore  to  conclude  that  there  is 
none,  but  that  our  line  is  not  long  enough,  or  our  lead  not  heavy 
enough  to  reach  it. 

For,  it  were  a  logical  absurdity  to  say,  that  the  whole  is  greater 
than  the  sum  of  its  parts — that  any  number  of  finite  parts  could 
compose  an  infinite  universe.  Each  sun  or  planet  is  a  finite  object, 
and  any  possible  number  of  them  can  be  counted  in  a  sufficient 
time.  It  is  impossible  that  any  number  can  be  infinite;  for  we  are 
not  using  the  word  infinite  here  in  the  loose  sense  in  which  it  is 
used  by  mathematicians,  when  they  speak  of  an  infinite  series ; 
that  is,  a  series  which,  though  it  has  no  end,  has  a  beginning;  but 
in  the  strict  sense  of  something  having  neither  beginning  nor  end. 
A  beginning  of  the  universe,  either  in  space  or  time,  is  the  very 
thing  the  Atheist  denies. 

While  reason  thus  enables  us  to  show  this  dogma  of  the  infinity 
of  the  universe  to  be  theoretically  improbable,  and  logically  irra¬ 
tional,  science  has  lately  taken  a  more  decisive  step,  and  demon¬ 
strated  it  to  be  actually  false.  The  universe  has  boundaries,  and 
we  have  seen  them.  The  proof  is  simple,  and  easily  demonstrable, 
since  the  discovery  that  nebulae  are  clusters  of  stars.  That  broad 
band  of  luminous  cloud  which  stretches  across  the  heaven,  called 
the  Milky  Way,  consists  of  millions  of  stars,  so  small  and  distant 
that  we  cannot  see  the  individual  stars,  and  so  numerous  that  we 
cannot  help  seeing  the  light  of  the  mass  :  just  as  you  see  the  outline 
of  the  forest  at  a  distance,  but  are  unable  to  distinguish  the  indi¬ 
vidual  trees.  Besides  this  mass  of  stars  to  which  our  solar  system 
belongs,  there  are  thousands  of  smaller  similar  clouds  in  various 
parts  of  the  heavens,  which  have  successively  been  shown  to  consist 
of  multitudes  of  stars.  But  all  around  these  star-clouds  the  clear 
blue  sky  is  discovered  by  the  naked  eye. 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  perceive,  that  if  all  the  regions  of  infinite  space 
were  filled  either  with  self-luminous  suns,  or  planets  capable  of 
reflecting  light,  or  comets  of  gaseous  consistency,  at  such  distances 
as  the  Milky  Way,  or  any  other  star-cloud  demonstrates  to  be  safe 
and  practicable,  we  should  see  no  blue  sky  at  all ;  but  the  whole 
194 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


7 


vault  of  heaven  would  present  that  whitish  light  resulting  from  the 
mingling  of  the  rays  of  multitudes  of  stars,  planets,  and  comets, 
which  the  Milky  Way  does  actually  exhibit.  No  matter  how  small 
or  how  distant  these  stars,  if  they  were  only  infinitely  numerous ,  it 
is  impossible  that  there  could  be  any  point  in  the  heavens  unillu¬ 
minated  by  their  rays,  even  although  the  stars  themselves  were 
invisible  to  our  eyes,  or  even  to  our  telescopes.  The  whole  heaven 
would  be  one  vast  Milky  Way. 

Though  the  telescope  discovers  multitudes  of  stars  where  the 
naked  eye  sees  none,  yet  they  are,  in  far  the  greater  number  of 
instances,  “  seen  projected  on  a  ‘perfectly  dark  heaven ,  without  any 
appearance  of  intermixed  nebulosity And  even  through  the 
Milky  Way,  and  the  other  nebulce,  the  telescope  penetrates,  through 
“  intervals  absolutely  dark,  and  completely  void  of  any  star,  of  the 
smallest  telescopic  magnitude.”  f  It  may  assist  us  to  understand 
the  full  import  of  this  declaration,  to  remember  that  Lord  Rosse’s 
large  telescope  clearly  defines  any  object  on  the  moon’s  surface  as 
large  as  the  Custom  House.  Its  power  of  penetrating  space  sur¬ 
passes  our  power  of  imagination,  but  is  represented  by  saying, 
that  light,  which  flashes  from  San  Francisco  to  London  quicker 
than  you  can  close  your  eye  and  open  it  again,  requires  millions  of 
years  to  travel  to  our  earth  from  the  most  distant  star-cloud  discov¬ 
erable  by  this  telescope. $  If  a  galaxy  like  this  of  ours  existed  any 
where  within  this  amazing  distance,  that  telescope  would  discover 
its  existence.  It  has,  in  fact,  augmented  the  universe  visible  to  us, 
125,000,000  times,  and  thus  made  us  feel  that  not  merely  this 
world,  which  constitutes  our  earthly  all,  and  yon  glorious  sun, 
which  shines  upon  it,  but  all  the  host  of  heaven’s  suns,  and  plan¬ 
ets,  and  moons,  and  firmaments,  which  our  unaided  eyes  behold, 
are  but  as  a  handful  of  the  sand  of  the  ocean  shore,  compared  with 
the  immensity  of  the  universe.  But  ever,  and  along  with  this,  it 
has  shown  us  the  ocean  as  well  as  the  shore,  and  revealed  bound¬ 
less  regions  of  darkness  and  solitude  stretching  around  and  far 
away  beyond  these  islands  of  existence.  The  telescope,  then,  en¬ 
larges  and  confirms  our  views  of  the  extent  of  the  unoccupied  por¬ 
tions  of  space. 

If  there  were  only  one  dark  point  of  the  heavens  no  larger  than 


f  Cosmos,  iii.  197. 


*  Herschell’s  Outlines,  eh.  xvii.,  §887. 

%  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  9th  ed.,  p.  180, 


195 


8 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


the  apparent  magnitude  of  the  smallest  star,  this  one  unoccupied 
space  would  sufficiently  disprove  the  infinity  of  the  universe,  inas¬ 
much  as  there  would  be  a  portion  of  space  of  boundless  length,  and 
of  a  diameter  not  less  than  the  diameter  of  the  earth’s  orbit,  say 
190,000,000  miles,  in  which  stars  might  exist,  as  they  do  in  its 
borders,  but  yet  do  not.  But  the  argument  becomes  utterly  over¬ 
whelming,  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  calculate  the  proportion  of 
space  occupied  by  the  stars  to  that  left  unoccupied.  Whether  wo 
take  Ilerschell’s  computation,  that  the  nebulae  cover  one  270th  part 
of  the  superficies  of  the  visible  heaven,*  or  Struve’s  supposition  of 
the  existence  of  a  star  subtending  no  measurable  angle,  in  every 
part  of  the  visible  sky  as  large  as  the  surface  of  the  moon,  the 
vast  disproportion  of  the  universe  to  the  space  in  which  it  is  placed, 
forces  itself  upon  our  notice.  For,  upon  the  largest  of  these  com¬ 
putations,  the  proportion  of  existence  to  empty  space  is  mathemat¬ 
ically  proved  to  be  not  greater  than  as  the  cube  of  1  to  the  cube  of 
269  ;  that  is  to  say,  there  is  room  for  19,395,109  such  universes  as 
this  of  ours  in  that  small  part  of  infinite  space  open  to  the  view  of 
Herschell’s  telescopes.  But  when  we  come  to  consider  the  vastness 
of  these  regions  of  darkness,  over  which  no  light  has  traveled  for 
twenty  millions  of  years,  and  remember  also  that  astronomers  have 
looked  clear  through  the  nebulas,  and  find  that  they  bear  no  more 
cubical  proportion  to  the  infinite  darkness  behind  them  than  the 
sparks  of  a  chimney  do  to  the  extent  of  the  sky  against  which  they 
seem  projected,  so  far  from  imagining  the  universe  to  be  infinite, 
we  stand  confounded  at  its  relative  insignificance,  and  are  convinced 
that  it  bears  no  more  proportion  to  infinite  space  than  a  fishing- 
boat  does  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

There  is  no  possible  evasion  of'  this  great  fact,  by  any  contradic¬ 
tory  hypothesis.  It  cannot  be  objected  “that  stars  may  exist  at 
infinite  distances,  whose  light  has  not  yet  reached  the  limits  of  our 
universe.”  If  they  do,  they  did  not  exist  from  eternity,  for  there 
is  no  possible  distance  over  which  light  could  not  have  traveled, 
during  eternal  duration.  But  their  eternal  existence  is  the  very 
thing  which  the  Atheist  is  concerned  to  prove.  Grant  that  infinite 
space  is  filled  with  worlds  which  had  a  beginning,  and  their  neces¬ 
sary  existence  instantly  falls,  and  we  are  compelled  to  seek  for  a 
cause  of  their  beginning  of  existence  :  that  is  to  say,  a  Creator. 


196 


*  Cosmos,  iv.  292. 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


9 


Nor  will  it  answer  the  purpose  to  say,  “that  for  any  thing  we 
know  to  the  contrary,  these  dark  regions  may  be  filled  with  dark 
stars.” 

If  the  fact  were  so,  it  is  equally  fatal  to  the  dogma  of  self-exis¬ 
tence.  Some  stars  shine  :  others  are  dark.  Why  so?  Wherefore 
this  difference?  Variety  is  an  effect,  and  demands  a  prior  cause. 
Were  there  only  two  stars  in  the  sky,  or  two  substances  on  the 
earth,  and  those  unlike  in  any  particular,  that  plurality  and  that 
variety  would  prove  that  they  could  not  be  infinite  or  self-existent, 
but  dependent  upon  some  cause  for  their  existence,  and  their 
Various  forms. 

But  we  do  know  many  things  contrary  to  the  notion  that  the 
dark  regions  of  infinite  space  may  be  full  of  dark  stars.  Light  is 
not  the  only  indication  of  the  presence  of  a  star.  The  attraction 
of  gravity,  which  is  wholly  independent  of  light,  is  a  proof  quite  as 
certain  and  satisfactory  to  the  astronomer.  The  presence  of  stars 
and  planets  too  faint  to  be  discovered  by  the  naked  eye,  and  of 
one,  the  planet  Neptune,*  as  far  distant  from  the  planet  disturbed 
by  its  attraction  as  the  earth  is  from  the  sun,  was  ascertained,  and 
its  place  pointed  out  to  a  degree,  by  Adams  and  Leverrier,  before 
it  teas  seen.  If  the  dark  interplanetary  spaces,  then,  were  full  of 
dark  attracting  bodies,  the  perturbations  of  the  other  planets  tvould 
discover  their  existence.  So  the  presence  of  some  invisible  stars  at 
much  greater  distances  from  their  visible  associates  has  been  dis¬ 
covered  by  Bessel,f  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  a  dark  firmament 
may  yet  be  discovered,  containing  as  great  a  number  of  dark  stars 
as  we  now  behold  of  luminaries :  another  group  of  islets  in  the 
ocean  of  infinite  space.  But  the  very  facts  which  will  prove  their 
existence  will  disprove  their  infinity ;  for  we  can  know  their  pres¬ 
ence  only  by  their  perturbation  of  the  proper  motions  of  the  visible 
stars  ;  but  if  infinite  space  were  full  of  dark  bodies,  the  visible  stars 
would  have  no  room  to  move  at  all.  It  is  easily  demonstrable,  that 
if  infinite  space  were  filled  with  dark  stars,  the  equilibrium  and 
coherence  of  our  galaxy,  and  of  all  other  clusters  of  stars,  would  be 
destroved.  The  existence  of  nebulae  and  clusters,  and  the  revolu- 
tions  of  the  binary  stars,  are  conclusive  proof  that  the  dark  parts 
of  infinite  space  are  not  full  of  dark  attracting  bodies. 


*  Nicholl’s  Contemplations  on  the  Solar  System,  xxx. 
f  Cosmos,  iii.  253. 


197 


10 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


Nor  can  the  Atheist  here  raise  his  usual  argument  from  unknown 
facts,  and  say  that,  “far  beyond  the  range  of  our  most  powerful 
telescopes,  a  boundless  expanse  of  firmaments  may  exist.”  It  con¬ 
cerns  not  our  present  argument  whether  such  exist  or  not.  What¬ 
soever  discoveries  may  be  made  to  eternity,  of  firmaments,  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  times  larger  than  we  now  behold, 
they  can  never  bear  the  smallest  proportion  to  the  infinite  space  in 
which  they  exist.  Beyond  these  islets  will  extend  gulfs  and  oceans 
immeasurable.  Our  argument,  however,  has  no  concern  with  the 
unknown  possible,  but  with  the  actual  fact — visible  to  the  naked 
eye,  and  confirmed  by  the  telescope — that  there  is  a  portion  of 
space  in  which  millions  of  universes  such  as  this  might  exist  with 
safety,  yet  they  do  not.  Worlds,  therefore,  do  not  exist  by  the 
necessity  of  their  own  nature,  wherever  there  is  room  for  them, 
but  must  have  had  some  pre-existent,  external,  and  supernatural 
cause  of  their  existence  in  this  place  and  not  in  other  places. 
This  implies  choice — will — God. 

The  physical  refutation  of  the  self-existence  of  the  universe  is 
completed  by  the  discovery,  that  all  the  orbs  of  heaven,  as  well  as 
the  earth,  are  in  motion,  and  that  an  orderly  and  regulated  motion.* 
The  fact  need  not  be  illustrated,  for  it  is  not  denied.  The  conse¬ 
quence  is  inevitable.  That  which  is  self-existent  must  be  unchange¬ 
able  :  for  change  is  an  effect,  and  demands  a  cause ;  and  the  cause 
must  exist  before  the  effect,  and  produce  it.  Whatsoever  is  change¬ 
able,  then,  is  a  product  of  a  prior  cause,  and  so  not  self-existent. 
But  the  universe  is  changeable,  for  it  is  in  motion,  which  is  a 
change  of  place ;  therefore,  the  universe  is  not  self-existent,  but  the 
product  of  a  prior  cause. 

No  mechanical  law  is  a  sufficient  cause  for  this  motion.  To 
allege  that  a  power  of  orderly,  regulated  motion — and  there  is  no 
other  sort  of  motion  in  heaven  or  earth — is  an  inherent  property 
of  matter,  is  simply  to  insult  our  common  sense,  and  overturn  the 
foundation  of  all  reason.  For  we  have  no  knowledge  of  matter,  and 
can  have  none,  more  certain  than  we  have  of  the  constitution  of 
our  own  minds,  which  requires  us  to  trace  up  every  change  among 
material  objects  to  the  energy  and  ivill  of  a  person  capable  of  plan¬ 
ning  and  effecting  the  change.  To  refer  us  to  the  law  of  gravity 
is  not  to  give  us  a  cause  for  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  but 


198 


*  Hei'schell’s  Outlines,  ch.  xvi. 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


11 


only  a  name;  for  law  is  only  a  rule  of  action.  We  demand  a  law¬ 
giver — an  agent — a  force,  capable  of  producing  effects.  When  the 
law  of  projectiles  makes  a  cannon  ball,  and  projects  it,  we  will 
believe  that  the  law  of  gravity  made  the  worlds,  and  moves  them. 

“  Descending  within  the  mind’s  interior  chambers,  I  find  no  con¬ 
viction  so  sure  of  the  existence  of  an  external  world,  as  is  my  belief 
in  the  reality  of  power — of  something  that  sustains  succession,  and 
causes  order.  Again,  then,  whence  this  idea,  and  what  is  it? 
What  this  attribute  with  which  I  endow  material  laws,  and  raise 
them  into  forces  ?  Now,  in  my  apprehension,  the  strictest  scrutiny 
cannot  obtain  for  these  inquiries  any  reply  save  one:  w  e  primarily 
connect  the  idea  of  power  with  no  change  or  movement,  except  an 
act  or  determination  of  the  Free  Will;  but  from  such  acts,  that 
idea  is  inseparable.  If,  therefore,  in  order  to  explain  the  progress 
of  material  things,  we  require  the  agency  of  efficient  causes ,  is  not 
this  a  direct  and  solemn  recognition — through  all  form  and  tran¬ 
siency — of  the  necessity  of  an  ever  present  creative  power  :  a  power 
requisite  and  necessary  to  uphold — to  renew  the  universe  every 
moment — or,  rather,  to  prolong  creation  by  the  persistence  of  the 
creative  act?  And,  in  very  truth,  startling  though  it  be,  such  is 
the  only  and  ultimate  scientific  idea  of  the  Divine  Omnipresence. 
Law  is  not  even  the  Almighty’s  minister;  the  order  of  the  material 
world,  however  close  and  firm,  is  not  merely  the  Almighty’s  ordi¬ 
nance.  The  forces,  if  so  we  name  them,  which  express  that  order, 
are  not  powers  which  he  has  evolved  from  the  silences,  and  to 
whose  guardianship  he  has  committed  all  things,  so  that  He  him¬ 
self  might  repose.  No!  above,  below,  around,  there  is  God:  there 
his  universal  presence,  speaking  to  finite  creatures,  in  finite  forms, 
a  language  which  only  the  living  heart  can  understand.  In  the 
rain  and  the  sunshine ;  in  the  soft  zephyrs ;  in  the  cloud,  the 
torrent,  and  the  thunder;  in  the  bursting  blossom,  and  the  hiding 
branch;  in  the  revolving  season,  and  the  rolling  star:  there  is  the 
Infinite  Essence,  and  the  mystic  development  of  IDs  Will.”  * 

2.  Scientific  Astronomy  inexorably  demolishes  the  Atheistic 
scheme  for  the  arrangement  of  the  Solar  System  by  accident,  com¬ 
monly  known  as  Buff on's  cosmogony. 

“  Buffon  supposes  that  the  force  of  a  comet  falling  obliquely  on 
the  sun  has  projected  to  a  distance  a  torrent  of  the  matter  of  which 


*  Nicholl’s  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  9th  ed.,  272. 


199 


12 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


it  is  composed,  as  a  stone  thrown  into  a  "basin  causes  the  water 
which  it  contains  to  splash  out.  This  torrent  of  matter,  in  a  state 
of  fusion,  has  broken  into  several  parts,  which  have  been  arrested 
at  different  distances  from  the  sun,  according  to  their  density,  or 
the  impetus  they  received.  They  then  united  in  spheres,  by  the 
effect  of  motion  of  rotation,  and  condensing  by  cold,  have  become 
opaque  and  solid  planets  and  satellites.*” 

This  formation  of  worlds  by  accident,  it  is  true,  gave  no  reason 
for  the  form  of  their  orbits,  for  their  rotation  on  their  axes,  in  one 
direction,  and  that,  too,  the  direction  of  their  motion,  nor  for  sev¬ 
eral  other  matters,  of  which  infidels  make  little  account,  but  about 
which  plain  men  like  to  ask,  namely:  Where  did  the  sun  come 
from?  What  melted  it  down  into  a  fluid  state,  fit  to  be  splashed 
about?  Where  did  the  comet  come  from?  And  who  threw  it 
with  so  correct  an  aim  through  infinite  space  as  exactly  to  hit  the 
sun  in  an  oblique  direction.  Creation,  it  seems,  was  nearly  missed, 
after  all.  This  chaotic  theory  never  gained  much  respect  from 
men  of  science,  though  its  simplicity  speedily  opened  its  way 
among  the  vulgar,  and  it  has  ever  been  a  favorite  with  the  most 
ignorant  class  of  infidels,  numbering  thousands  of  warm  advocates, 
even  at  the  present  day. 

It  was  thought  to  be  very  much  corroborated  by  the  discovery  of 
the  asteroids,  aqd  their  supposed  formation  by  the  explosion  of  a 
larger  body.  There  is  a  certain  proportion  observed  in  the  dis¬ 
tances  of  the  orbits  of  the  planets  from  each  other — a  breadth  of 
guage,  as  it  were,  on  the  celestial  railroad.  But  there  was  the 
breadth  of  a  track  between  the  orbits  of  Mars  and  Jupiter  on  which 
no  train  ran,  and  this  vacancy  excited  the  curiosity  of  astronomers. 
In  the  first  seven  years  of  this  century,  three  very  small  planets 
were  discovered,  running  near  this  track ;  and  Dr.  Olbers,  the  dis¬ 
coverer  of  Pallas,  finding  that  they  were  nearly  in  the  same  track, 
and  sometimes  crossed  each  other,  and  that  they  were  diminutively 
small — bearing  about  the  same  proportion  to  a  regular  planet 
which  a  hand-car  does  to  a  freight  train — imagined  that  they  were 
formed  by  the  explosion  of  a  large  planet:  that  the  boiler  of  the 
large  locomotive  had  burst,  the  fragments  had  all  lighted  upon  the 
track  again,  in  the  shape  of  hand-cars,  and  the  hand-cars  had  mag¬ 
nanimously  resolved  to  keep  running,  and  do  the  business  of  the 


*  Tontecoulant  in  System  of  the  World,  p.  70. 


200 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


13 


line;  and  that,  as  there  must  have  been  material  enough  in  the 
original  planet  to  make  some  thousands  of  them,  more  would  be 
discovered  by  watching  two  depots,  at  the  crossings  of  the  tracks, 
in  the  constellations  Virgo  and  the  Whale,  where  they  must  all 
pass.  In  fact,  he  did  himself  find  another,  very  near  one  of  these 
nodes  ;  and  quite  lately,  thirty-eight  others  have  been  found  ;  and 
astronomers  now  expect  to  hear  of  one  or  two  more  every  year.  At 
first  sight,  his  theory  seemed  strengthened  by  every  new  discovery. 
It  is  true,  reflecting  men  could  not  help  wondering  at  such  a  mar¬ 
vellously  regular  explosion  as  would  produce  beautiful  little  orderly 
planets,  going  so  regularly  and  curiously  too,  and  all  by  accident. 
They  never  heard  of  the  blowing  up  of  a  palace  producing  cottages, 
or  the  explosion  of  a  steamboat  throwing  off  the  hurricane  deck  in 
the  shape  of  whaleboats,  or  the  bursting  of  a  locomotive  producing 
model  engines,  or  even  hand-cars.  However,  as  the  theory  removed 
God  out  of  sight  it  was  generally  accepted,  and  freely  used  by  in¬ 
fidels,  to  show  that  the  world  had  no  need  of  a  creator. 

But  astronomers  saw,  that  as  each  new  asteroid  had  a  track  of 
its  own,  and  ran  to  a  different  terminus,  and  the  roads  in  which 
they  ran  were  of  different  guages  and  grades — one  little  asteroid, 
Pallas,  running  up  and  down  a  track  inclined  35  degrees,  just  as 
speedily  as  the  others — every  new  discovery  increased  the  difficulty 
of  accounting  for  their  origin  by  explosion.  But  the  discovery  of 
the  planet  Ilygeia,  at  a  vast  distance  from  the  others,  utterly  over¬ 
turned  the  explosion  theory.  Loomis  says : 

“  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  our  regarding  these  small  planets 
as  fragments  of  a  single  body,  were  well  nigh  insuperable  before 
the  discovery  of  Ilygeia.  This  last  discovery  has  probably  given 
the  death  blow  to  the  theory  of  Olbers.  The  orbit  of  Ilygeia  com¬ 
pletely  encloses  the  orbits  of  several  of  the  asteroids,  its  perihilion 
distance — that  is,  its  least  distance  from  the  sun — 'exceeding  the 
aphelion — or  greatest  distance — of  Flora  by  twenty-jive  millions  of 
miles.  No  change  of  position  of  the  orbits  could ,  therefore ,  bring 
these  orbits  to  a  coincidence 

The  matter  has  been  finally  settled  by  the  greatest  of  modern 
mathematicians,  Leverrier,  who  has  subjected  the  eccentricities, 
distances,  and  inclinations  of  the  orbits  of  the  asteroids  to  a  mathe¬ 
matical  investigation,  the  result  of  which  is  as  follows : 


*  Progress  of  Astronomy,  70. 


201 


14 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


“  In  the  present  state  of  things,  these  eccentricities  and  these 
inclinations  are  totally  incompatible  with  Olber’s  hypothesis,  which 
supposed  that  the  small  planets — some  of  which  were  discovered 
even  in  his  day — were  produced  from  the  wreck  of  a  larger  star, 
which  had  exploded.  The  forces  necessary  to  launch  the  fragments 
of  a  given  body  in  such  different  routes  (whose  existence  we  should 
be  obliged  to  suppose),  would  be  of  such  an  improbable  intensity, 
that  the  most  limited  mathematical  knowledge  could  not  but  see 
its  absurdity.”  lie  concludes  the  memoir  by  advancing  four  propo¬ 
sitions,  “  which  forever  annihilate  Olber’s  hypothesis.”  * 

The  Buffonian  theory,  thus  deprived  of  the  only  apparently  anal¬ 
ogous  fact  by  which  it  was  supported,  was  restored  to  its  birth¬ 
place,  in  the  regions  of  foggy  hypothesis.  But  science,  indignant 
that  such  nonsense  should  ever  have  dared  to  assume  her  livery, 
will  not  allow  it  to  linger  even  among  the  shades.  Those  irregular 
world-breaking  comets,  which,  while  their  density  was  unknown, 
formed  such  convenient  sledge-hammers  for  the  Atheist's  world- 
factory,  have  been  literally  dissipated  into  smoke  by  powerful  tele¬ 
scopes.  In  fact,  a  respectable  wreath  of  smoke  is  quite  a  substan¬ 
tial  being  compared  with  the  densest  of  the  comets. 

“  The  smallest  comets,  such  as  are  visible  only  in  telescopes,  or 
with  difficulty  by  the  naked  eye,  and  which  are  by  far  the  most 
numerous,  offer  very  frequently  no  appearance  of  a  tail,  and  appear 
only  as  round  or  somewhat  oval  vaporous  masses,  more  dense 
towards  the  center,  where,  however,  they  appear  to  have  no  distinct 
nucleus,  or  any  thing  which  seems  entitled  to  be  considered  a  solid 
body.  Stars  of  the  smallest  magnitude  remain  distinctly  visible, 
though  covered  by  what  appears  to  be  the  densest  portion  of  their 
surface ;  although  the  same  stars  would  be  completely  obliterated 
by  a  moderate  fog  extending  only  a  few  yards  from  the  surface  of 
the  earth.  And  since  it  is  an  observed  fact,  that  even  those  larger 
comets,  which  have  presented  the  appearance  of  a  nucleus,  have 
yet  exhibited  no  phases,  though  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  shine 
by  the  reflected  solar  light,  it  follows  that  even  these  can  only  be 
regarded  as  great  masses  of  thin  vapor,  susceptible  of  being  pene¬ 
trated  through  their  whole  substance  by  the  sunbeams,  and  reflect¬ 
ing  them  alike  from  their  interior  parts  and  from  their  surfaces. 


*  Memoir  to  the  French  Academy,  by  M.  Levemer;  from  The  Annual  of  Scientific 
Discovery,  for  1855,  p.  37G. 

202 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


15 


Nor  will  any  one  regard  this  explanation  hs  forced,  or  feel  disposed 
to  resort  to  a  phosphorescent  quality  in  the  comet  itself,  to  account 
for  the  phenomena  in  question,  when  we  consider  (what  will  here¬ 
after  be  shown)  the  enormous  magnitude  of  the  space  thus  illumi¬ 
nated,  and  the  extremely  small  mass  which  there  is  ground  to 
attribute  to  these  bodies.  It  will  then  be  evident  that  the  most 
unsubstantial  clouds  which  float  in  the  highest  regions  of  our 
atmosphere,  and  seem  at  sunset  to  be  drenched  in  light,  and  to 
glow  throughout  their  whole  depth,  as  if  in  actual  ignition,  without 
any  shadow  or  dark  side,  must  be  looked  upon  as  dense  and  massy 
bodies ,  compared  with  the  filmy  and  all  but  spiritual  texture  of  a 
comet”  * 

3.  The  progress  of  Astronomical  discovery  has  utterly  refuted  the 
notion  of  creation  by  natural  law ,  known  as  the  Development  Theory , 
or  the  Nebular  Hypothesis. 

Scientific  infidels  knew  that  there  was  too  much  order  and  regu¬ 
larity  in  the  motions  of  the  planets  to  allow  any  rational-  mind  to 
ascribe  these  motions  to  accident,  according  to  Butfon’s  notion. 
They  saw  that  these  movements  must  be  regulated  by  law.  La 
Place,  an  eminent  mathematician,  saw  that  there  are  at  least  five 
great  regularities  pervading  the  system,  for  which  Buffon’s  theory 
gave  no  reason : 

1.  The  planets  all  move  in  elliptical  orbits,  nearly  circular.  They 
might,  on  the  contrar}g  have  been  as  elongated  as  those  of  comets. 

2.  They  revolve  in  orbits  nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  sun’s  equa¬ 
tor.  They  might  have  revolved  in  orbits  inclined  to  it  at  any  angle, 
or  even  in  the  plane  of  his  poles. 

3.  They  revolve  around  the  sun  all  in  the  same  direction,  which 
is  the  direction  of  his  rotation  on  his  axis. 

4.  They  rotate  on  their  axes,  also,  so  far  as  known,  in  the  same 
direction. 

5.  The  satellites  (with  the  exception  of  those  of  Uranus)  revolve 
around  their  primary  planets,  and  also  rotate  on  their  axes,  in  the 
same  normal  direction. 

It  was  evident,  even  to  the  believers  in  chance,  that  so  many 
regularities  were  not  produced  by  accident.  La  Place  found,  by 
computing  the  chances  by  the  formula  of  probabilities,  that  the 
chances  were  two  millions  to  one  against  these  regularities  happen- 


*  Herschell’s  Outlines  of  Astronomy,  p.  553,  ed.  of  1853. 


203 


16 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


ing  by  chance,  and  four  millions  to  one  in  favor  of  these  motions 
having  a  common  origin.  The  grand  phenomenon  being  a  motion 
of  rotation  in  the  whole  system,  of  which  the  rotation  of  the  sun  is 
the  central  part,  he  thought  if  he  could  account  for  this,  he  could 
explain  all  the  rest. 

He  set  out  by  supposing  that  the  sun  and  planets  originally  ex¬ 
isted  as  a  vast  cloud  of  gaseous  matter,  intensely  heated — a  vast 
fire  mist — placed  in  a  region  of  space  much  cooler,  and  that  this 
cloud,  by  gradual  cooling,  and  the  pressure  of  its  parts,  settled 
down  into  solid  forms.  It  was  supposed  that  some  portions  of  this 
cloud  would  begin  to  cool  sooner  than  others,  and  so  become  solid 
sooner,  and  that  the  hot  gas,  rushing  to  the  solid  part,  would  form 
a  vortex,  which  would  set  the  cloud  in  motion  around  its  center. 
As  the  speed  of  its  rotation  would  increase,  and  the  outside  con¬ 
dense  and  grow  solid  before  the  inside,  the  cloud  would  whirl  olf 
the  rings  of  solid  matter,  which  would  keep  revolving  in  the  same 
orbits  in  which  they  were  cast  olf,  and  would  revolve  faster  and 
faster  as  they  grew  cooler  and  more  solid,  till  they  broke  up,  by 
the  force  of  their  velocity,  into  smaller  pieces  ;  which  fragments, 
in  their  turn,  repeated  the  process,  until  the  present  number  of 
planets  and  their  satellites  was  produced. 

This  theory  differs  from  Buffon’s  much  as  a  low  pressure  engine, 
deriving  most  of  its  power  from  the  condenser,  differs  from  one 
of  high  pressure.  La  Place  does  not  explode  the  boiler  to  make 
his  planets,  but  merely  runs  his  train  so  fast  as  to  break  an  axle 
every  now  and  then,  when  the  wheel  runs  off  with  the  velocity  it 
had  got,  and  keeps  its  track  as  well  as  if  it  had  an  engineer  to 
guide  it,  grows  into  a  little  locomotive  by  dint  of  running,  and 
after  a  while  breaks  an  axle  too, — breaking  is  a  hereditary  failing 
of  these  suns  and  planets  that  had  no  God  to  make  them  —  and 
the  wheels  thus  thrown  off  supply  it  with  moons  and  rings,  like 
Saturn’s.  The  illustration  is  not  nearly  so  absurd  as  the  theory, 
inasmuch  as  a  locomotive  is  an  incomparably  less  complicated  con¬ 
trivance  than  a  planet.  However,  the  nonsense  was  cradled  in  the 
halls  of  philosophy  in  the  manner  following. 

Ilerschell  had  discovered  numbers  of  nebulae,  or  luminous  clouds, 
in  the  distant  heavens,  shining  with  a  distinct  light,  but  which, 
with  the  highest  magnifying  power  be  could  apply,  presented  no 
trace  of  stars.  Some  nebulae,  it  is  true,  his  largest  telescope  re¬ 
solved,  like  our  own  Milky  Way,  into  beds  of  distinct  stars;  but 
204 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


17 


there  were  others — for  instance,  one  in  the  belt  of  Orion — visible  to 
the  naked  eye  as  a  cloud,  but  which  his  forty  feet  telescope  only 
displayed  as  a  larger  cloud,  without  any  shape  of  stars.  Now, 
reasoning  upon  the  matter,  he  found  that  if  these  nebulae  were 
composed  of  stars  as  large  as  those  distinctly  visible,  they  must  be 
immensely  distant  to  be  indistinguishable  by  his  telescope,  and 
exceedingly  numerous  and  close  together  to  give  a  cloud  of  light 
visible  to  the  naked  eye.  In  fact,  the  suns  of  those  firmaments 
must  be  so  close  to  each  other  as  to  present  a  blaze  of  glory,  and 
complexities  of  revolution  inconceivable  to  the  dwellers  on  earth. 
But  as  this  daring  idea  seemed  incredible,  even  to  his  giant  mind, 
he  thought  the  appearance  of  these  nebulas  might  be  more  ration¬ 
ally  accounted  for  bv  supposing  that  they  were  not  stars  at  all,  but 
simply  clouds  of  gaseous  matter,  like  the  matter  of  comets,  from 
which  he  supposed  that  stars  were  formed  by  a  long  process  of 
condensation  and  solidification.  He  thought  this  theory  was  fa¬ 
vored  by  the  fact,  that  nebulae  are  generally  seen  in  those  portions 
of  the  heavens  that  are  not  thickly  strewn  with  stars ;  and  also  by 
the  various  forms  of  these  clouds.  Some  were  merely  loose  clouds, 
without  any  definite  form  ;  others  seemed  gathering  towards  the 
center.  In  some,  of  a  roundish,  or  oval  form,  the  central  mass 
seemed  well  defined.  In  a  few,  the  process  seemed  nearly  com¬ 
plete,  a  bright  star  shining  in  the  midst  of  a  faint  nebulous  halo. 
Here,  then,  it  was  said,  we  see  the  whole  progress  of  the  growth 
of  stars:  their  development  from  the  gaseous  nebulous  fluid  into 
solid,  brilliant  suns.  La  Place  accepted  Ilerschell’s  discoveries  as 
conclusive  proof  of  the  truth  of  his  theory,  and  it  was  generally 
accepted  by  the  scientific  world.  Oddly  enough,  nobody  seems  to 
have  noticed  that  those  appearances  of  condensation  toward  the 
centre,  which  seemed  to  Ilerschell  so  strongly  in  favor  of  his  theory 
of  the  nebulous  fluid,  were  diametrically  opposed  to  La  Place’s 
requirements  of  condensation  at  the  circumference;  and  these  two 
contradictory  notions  were  supposed  to  support  each  other,  and  to 
furnish  a  solid  basis  for  the  Development  Hypothesis. 

This  theory,  as  stated  by  Ilerschell,  and  expounded  by  Nicholl, 
Dick,  and  other  Christian  writers,  is  not  necessarily  Atheistical. 
On  the  contrary,  they  allege  that  it  furnishes  us  with  greater  evi¬ 
dences  of  the  power  of  God,  and  gives  us  higher  ideas  of  his  wis¬ 
dom,  to  suppose  a  system  of  creation  by  development,  under  natural 
law,  than  by  a  direct  exercise  of  his  will.  Undoubtedly,  had  God 

2  205 


18 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


so  pleased,  lie  could  somehow  have  made  suns  from  Fire  Mists,  hut 
not  according  to  La  Place’s  plan,  as  we  shall  presently  see.  Or  he 
could  have  caused  firmaments  to  grow  from  seeds,  as  forests  do, 
according  to  some  sublime  and  uniform  law  of  such  celestial  vege¬ 
tation.  In  such  a  case,  we  should  have  had  the  same  kind  of  evi¬ 
dence  of  his  being,  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  in  creation  by 
natural  law,  which  we  now  have  from  his  providence  by  natural 
law,  when  he  sends  us  rain  from  heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons;  and 
so  much  greater  an  amount  of  it,  as  the  heavens  are  greater  than 
the  earth.  The  first  creation  of  primeval  elements  demands  a 
creator,  and  the  contrivance  of  the  law  of  development  a  contriver; 
and  the  force,  either  of  gravity,  chemical  attraction,  or  any  other, 
by  which  it  operates,  must  proceed  from  an  agent.  The  Develop¬ 
ment  Theory,  then,  cannot  exist  without  God. 

However,  as  it  seems  to  remove  him  a  few  steps  from  his  works, 
and  as  all  ungodly  men  desire  his  absence,  Atheists  and  Pantheists 
of  all  kinds  have  earnestly  laid  hold  of  it  as  the  foundation  of  their 
system  of  the  development  of  the  universe  from  eternal,  self-existent 
matter,  without  an  intelligent  creator.  It  is  at  this  moment,  with 
thousands,  the  substitute  for  the  Living  God. 

Like  most  errors,  this  is  the  product  of  ignorance.  Herschell, 
with  his  large  telescope,  did  not  see  well  enough  the  objects  which 
he  pronounced  to  be  clouds  of  nebulous  fluid.  Lord  Eosse  has 
seen  them  better,  with  his  larger  telescope,  and  these  clouds  are 
hosts  of  very  small  and  distant  stars,  clearly  projected  against  the 
dark  sky.*  That  nebula  in  Orion,  which  was  considered  the  test 
specimen,  has  been  resolved,  and  the  whole  nebular  hypothesis 
is  dissipated.  Says  Sir  David  Brewster,  “It  was  certainly  a  rash 
generalization  to  maintain,  that  nebulae  differed  from  clusters  of 
stars,  because  existing  telescopes  could  not  resolve  them.  The 
very  first  application  of  Lord  Eosse’s  telescope  to  the  heavens  over¬ 
turned  the  hypothesis ;  and  with  such  unequivocal  facts  as  that 
instrument  has  brought  to  light,  we  regard  it  as  a  most  unwarrant¬ 
able  assumption  to  suppose,  that  there  are  in  the  heavenly  spaces 
any  masses  of  matter  different  from  solid  bodies  composing  plan¬ 
etary  systems.”*  Nichol,  formerly  an  eloquent  supporter  of  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  thus  expresses  the  opinion  of  the  scientific 
world : 

“It  has  been  asked,  Are  not  many  such  masses  in  the  heavens 


206 


*  North  British  Review,  No.  Ill,  p,  477. 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


19 


still  irresolvable,  even  by  the  great  mirrors  of  Parsonstown  ?  It 
cannot,  indeed,  be  doubted,  that  nebulae  defying  the  most  energetic 
of  these  instruments,  exist  in  numbers  in  the  sky ;  but,  neverthe¬ 
less,  every  shred  of  that  evidence  which  induced  us  to  accept  as  a 
reality  accumulations  in  the  heavens  of  matter  not  stellar ,  is  for 
ever  and  hopelessly  destroyed.  The  logical  state  of  the  question  is 
simply  this :  On  the  ground  of  a  certain  characteristic,  Herschell 
felt  disposed  to  divide  unresolved  nebulae  into  two  classes.  He 
declined  to  believe  one  class  to  be  stellar,  because  that  conclusion 
would  have  constrained  his  acceptance  of  what  seemed  opposed  by 
all  analogy,  viz.,  the  existence  of  aggregations  of  stars  in  a  state  of 
compression  to  which  he  had  found  nothing  even  approximately 
similar,  in  the  course  of  his  previous  examination  of  the  universe. 
Now,  the  nebula  of  Orion,  being  an  eminent  instance  of  the  latter 
class,  its  decisive  resolution  broke  down  the  force  of  the  charac¬ 
teristic ;  it  showed  that  to  be  a  fact,  on  the  presumed  improbability 
of  which  the  entire  theory  depended/7  f  “  The  effects  of  the  re¬ 
moval  of  the  nebular  theory  on  our  views  of  the  general  structure 
of  the  heavens,  I  have  explained  in  another  work  ;  and  I  refer  to  it 
here  only  in  its  bearings  on  La  Place’s  celebrated  theory  of  the 
origin  of  our  solar  system.  The  basis  of  that  theory,  considering  it 
as  a  matter  of  observation,  is  obviously  destroyed.  No  such  fact  as 
the  condensing  of  nebulous  matter  into  organized  stars,  can  now 
be  seen  in  the  heavens;  so  that  La  Place’s  fundamental  tenet, 
that  the  sun  originated  in  the  gradual  condensing  of  a  gaseous 
or  vaporous  mass,  must  henceforth  be  regarded  as  a  pure  hy¬ 
pothesis. 

It  never  was  any  thing  more  than  pure  hypothesis — a  mere  notion. 
Granting  to  this  theory  all  the  benefit  of  Herschell’s  supposed  dis¬ 
covery,  it  never  could  become  any  thing  more  than  a  theory,  utterly 
incapable  of  proof  as  a  fact;  for  it  is  evident  that  no  man  could 
possibly  ascertain  the  nature  of  clouds  thousands  of  millions  of 
miles  distant,  or  know  whether  they  were  hot  or  cold,  or  whether 
they  were  growing  hotter  or  colder.  It  was  not  pretended  that 
anybody  ever  did  see  them  scaling  off  into  rings,  and  the  rings 


*  Cosmos,  IY,  p.  304.  Herschell’s  Outlines,  xvii,  $  870.  Annual  of  Scientific  Dis¬ 
covery,  for  1853.  p.  363. 

f  Nicholl’s  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  9th  ed.  p.  145. 
t  Nicholl’s  Solar  System,  3d  ed.,  p.  9. 


207 


20 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS.' 


breaking  up  into  planets  and  moons,  nor  was  it  likely  anybody 
ever  would  see  such  a  phenomenon.  Its  author  merely  put  it  forth 
as  a  probable  theory,  and  no  scientific  man  ever  pretended  to 
demonstrate  it  as  a  discovered  fact.  Among  scientific  astronomers 
it  was  merely  a  notion. 

It  was  always  an  unsatisfactory  notion.  It  made  us  no  wiser 
about  the  origin  of  things.  It  gave  no  answer  to  the  all-important 
questions,  Where  did  the  gaseous  matter  come  from?  How  did  it 
get  to  be  so  hot,  while  the  space  around  it  was  so  cold?  Whence 
came  the  fire  that  heated  it?  Did  it  contain  within  itself  all  the 
principles  of  things  now  found  in  the  resulting  planets,  such  as 
attraction,  repulsion,  chemical  affinity,  animal  and  vegetable  life, 
and  intellect?  If  so,  how  came  they  there?  If  not,  where  did 
they  come  from  ? 

Besides ,  it  was  an  impracticable  notion,  contrary  to  the  known 
principles  of  mechanics.  The  great  requirement  of  the  whole 
system  —  the  power  to  work  the  engine  —  the  motion  of  rotation 
upon  which  the  whole  world-turning  business  depends  —  never 
could,  by  any  possibility,  be  raised,  either  by  La  Place’s,  or  any 
other  mechanical  plan.  If  he  had  the  moving  power,  no  doubt  he 
could  scatter  off  pieces  of  matter  from  his  rotating  sun,  as  drops  of 
water  are  scattered  from  a  rotating  grindstone ;  but  his  theory  is  a 
plan  to  make  the  grindstone  turn  itself,  and  is  precisely  of  the 
same  value  as  any  of  the  hundreds  of  ingenious  schemes  for  a  per¬ 
petual  motion,  whose  inventors  have  dreamed  of  creating  power  by 
machinery,  in  defiance  of  the  fundamental  law  of  mechanics,  that 
“  Action  and  reaction  are  equal.”  The  power  is  to  be  raised  by 
making  his  gas  cool  at  one  part  of  the  surface  faster  than  at  an¬ 
other,  and  so  make  a  vortex  around  that  spot,  which  would  set  the 
whole  revolving.  JSTo  conceivable  reason  can  be  assigned  why  it 
should  begin  to  cool  at  one  place  of  the  surface  faster  than  another; 
or,  indeed,  why,  if  eternally  hot,  it  ever  should  begin  to  cool  at  all. 
But,  to  make  the  required  vortex  for  the  rotation  of  the  mass,  it 
should  not  begin  to  cool  at  any  part  of  the  surface,  but  near  the 
middle,  where,  as  every  engine  driver  who  ever  saw  a  condenser, 
and  every  woman  who  has  cooled  a  dish  of  mush,  knows,  it  could 
not  begin  to  cool  at  all ;  and  so  no  motion  could  be  produced.  This 
is  so  well  knoAvn  in  the  machine  shops  and  dockyards,  that  it  is 
very  rare  to  find  an  intelligent  millwright  or  machinist  acknowledge 
the  theory. 

208 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


21 


Even  were  the  rotation  and  the  cooling  process  to  take  place, 
as  is  supposed,  no  such  results  would  proceed  from  these  combined 
operations  as  the  case  requires  ;  for,  according  to  the  theory,  as  the 
cooling  and  contracting  rings  revolve  in  the  verge  of  a  vortex  of 
fluid  less  dense  than  themselves,  one  of  these  two  results  must  take 
place :  either,  as  is  most  probable,  from  their  exceeding  tenuity, 
the  rings  will  break  at  once  into  fragments,  when,  instead  of  flying 
outwards,  they  will  sink  towards  the  center,  and,  as  long  as  they 
are  heavier  than  the  surrounding  fluid,  they  will  stay  there ;  and, 
as  the  cooling  goes  on  on  the  outside,  so  will  the  concentration  of 
the  heavier  matter,  till  we  have  one  great  spheroid,  with  a  solid 
center,  liquid  covering,  and  gaseous  atmosphere.  A  vortex  will 
never  make,  nor  allow  to  exist  beyond  its  center,  planets  heavier 
than  the  fluid  of  which  it  is  composed.  The  other  alternative,  and 
the  one  which  La  Place  selected,  was  the  supposition  that  the  cool¬ 
ing  and  contracting  rings  did  not  at  first  break  up  into  pjieces,  but 
retained  their  continuity ;  but,  contrary  to  all  experience  and 
reason,  he  supposed  that  these  cooling  rings  kept  contracting,  and 
widening  out  from  the  heated  mass,  at  the  same  time.  The  only 
fluid  planetary  rings  which  we  can  examine — those  of  Saturn — • 
have  been  closing  in  on  the  planet  since  the  days  of  Huygens,  and, 
in  a  dozen  years  or  so,  will  be  united  with  the  body  of  the  planet  ;* 
and  every  boy  who  has  seen  a  blacksmith  hoop  a  cart-wheel,  has 
learned  the  principle  that  a  heated  ring  contracts  as  it  cools,  and 
in  doing  so  presses  in  upon  the  mass  around  which  it  clings.  But, 
according  to  this  Nebular  Notion,  the  Fire  Mist  keeps  cooling  and 
shrinking  up,  while  the  rings,  of  the  very  same  heat  and  material, 
keep  cooling  faster,  and  widening  out  from  it:  a  piece  of  schismat- 
ical  behavior  without  a  parallel  among  solids  or  fluids,  either  in 
heaven  or  earth,  or  under  the  earth. 

Plateau’s  experiment  of  making  a  globule  of  oil  rotate  and  dis¬ 
perse  into  drops,  by  centrifugal  force  communicated  by  clockwork, 
while  floating  in  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  water,  all  of  the  same 
density ,  is  no  illustration  of  the  Nebular  Theory,  the  essential  con¬ 
dition  of  which  is,  that  the  cooling  contracting  rings  be  of  a  differ¬ 
ent  density  from  the  rest  of  the  mass.  Their  divergence  from  the 
more  fluid  portion  is  supposed  to  arise  from  their  growing  heavier 


*  Bond,  of  Cambridge,  U.  S.,  quoted  by  Sir  David  Brewster,  in  More  Worlds  than 
One,  3&. 

14 


209 


22 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


as  they  cool,  and  therefore  capable  of  a  greater  centrifugal  force ; 
in  consequence  of  which,  they  rotate  so  much  faster  than  the  fluid 
from  which  they  derived  their  motion,  that  finally  they  fly  out  of 
it.  The  only  other  instance  of  such  a  performance,  which  I  can 
remember,  is  that  of  the  Yankee’s  mill-wheel,  which  traveled  three 
times  as  fast  as  the  stream  which  drove  it,  while  the  latter  was 
swift  enough  to  make  the  saw-logs  fly  up  out  of  the  water,  merely 
by  the  force  of  the  current. 

This  Nebular  Notion  was  always  as  contrary  to  Astronomical 
facts ,  as  to  mechanical  'principles.  The  orbits  of  the  comets  being 
inclined  at  all  angles  to  the  sun’s  equator,  are  often  out  of  the 
plane  of  his  rotation,  and  so  in  the  way  of  the  theory.  The  moons 
of  Uranus  revolve  in  a  direction  contrary  to  all  the  other  bodies, 
and  fly  right  into  the  face  of  the  theory.  According  to  the  nebular 
theory,  the  outer  planets  first  cast  otf  from  the  sun,  ought  to  be 
lighter  than  those  nearer  him,  as  these  had  longer  pressing  near 
the  middle  of  the  mass ;  and  the  sun  himself,  having  been  pressed 
by  the  weight  of  all  the  rest  of  the  system,  should  be  the  densest 
body  of  the  whole.  And  the  author  of  the  Vestiges  of  Creation,  in 
expounding  the  theory,  manufactures  a  set  of  facts  to  suit  it,  and 
tells  his  readers  that  the  planets  exhibit  a  progressive  diminu¬ 
tion  in  density  from  the  one  nearest  the  sun  to  that  which  is  most 
distant.  Our  solar  system  could  not  have  lasted  thirty  years  had 
that  been  the  case.  The  Earth,  Venus,  and  Mars,  are  nearly  of  the 
same  density.  Uranus  is  more  dense  than  Saturn,  which  is  nearer 
the  Sun.  Neptune  is  more  dense  than  either.  The  Sun,  which 
ought  to  be  the  heaviest  of  all,  according  to  the  theory,  is  only  one 
fourth  the  density  of  the  earth.  La  Place  himself  has  demonstrated 
that  these  densities  and  arrangements  are  indispensable  to  the 
stability  of  the  system.  But  they  are  plainly  contradictory  to  his 
theory  of  its  formation.* 

The  palpable  difference  of  luminosity  between  the  Sun  and  the 
planets,  which,  as  they  are  all  made  of  the  very  same  materials, 
and  by  the  same  process,  according  to  this  theory,  ought  to  be 
equally  self-luminous,  is  in  itself  a  self-evident  refutation  of  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis,  or  of  any  other  process  of  creation  by  mere 


*  Taking  water  as  the  unit  of  density.  Mercury  is  6.71  ;  Venus,  5.11 ;  Earth,  5.44; 
Mars,  5.21 ;  Saturn,  0.76;  Uranus,  0.97;  Neptune,  1.25 ;  the  Sun,  1.  37. —  Cosmos,  iv., 
p.  447. 


210 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


23 


mechanical  law.  “The  same  power,  whether  natural  or  supernatu¬ 
ral,  which  placed  the  Sun  in  the  center  of  the  six  primary  planets, 
placed  Saturn  in  the  center  of  the  orb  of  his  five  secondary  planets; 
and  Jupiter  in  the  center  of  his  four  secondary  planets ;  and  the 
Earth  in  the  center  of  the  Moon’s  orbit;  and,  therefore,  had  this 
cause  been  a  blind  one,  without  contrivance  or  design,  the  Sun 
would  have  been  a  body  of  the  same  kind  with  Saturn,  Jupiter, 
and  the  Earth  ;  that  is,  without  light  or  heat.  Why  there  is  one 
body  in  our  system  qualified  to  give  light  and  heat  to  all  the  rest, 
1  know  no  reason,  but  because  the  Author  of  the  system  thought  it 
convenient.”  So  says  the  immortal  Newton.* 

The  great  expounder  of  modern  science — Humboldt — is  equally 
explicit  in  enumerating  the  decisive  marks  of  choice  and  will  in 
the  construction  of  the  solar  system,  and  in  contemptuously  dis¬ 
missing  the  notion  of  development  and  creation  by  natural  law 
from  the  halls  of  science. 

“Up  to  the  present  time,  we  are  ignorant,  as  I  have  already  re¬ 
marked,  of  any  internal  necessity — any  mechanical  law  of  nature — 
which  (like  the  beautiful  law  which  connects  the  square  of  the 
periods  of  revolution  with  the  cube  of  the  major  axis)  represents 
the  above  named  elements — the  absolute  magnitude  of  the  planets, 
their  density,  flattening  at  the  poles,  velocity  of  rotation,  and  pre¬ 
sence  or  absence  of  moons — of  the  order  of  succession  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  planetary  bodies  of  each  group,  in  their  dependence  upon 
the  distances.  Although  the  planet  which  is  nearest  the  sun  is 
densest — even  six  or  eight  times  denser  than  some  of  the  exterior 
planets:  Jupiter,  Saturn,  Uranus,  and  Neptune — the  order  of  suc¬ 
cession  in  the  case  of  Venus,  the  Earth,  and  Mars,  is  very  irregu¬ 
lar.  The  absolute  magnitudes  do,  generally,  as  Kepler  has  already 
observed,  increase  with  the  distances  ;  but  this  does  not  hold  good 
when  the  planets  are  considered  individually.  Mars  is  smaller 
than  the  Earth  ;  Uranus  smaller  than  Saturn  ;  Saturn  smaller  than 
Jupiter,  and  succeeds  immediately  to  a  host  of  planets,  which,  on 
account  of  their  smallness,  are  almost  immeasurable.  It  is  true, 
the  period  of  rotation  generally  increases  with  the  distance  from 
the  Sun  ;  but  it  is  in  the  case  of  Mars  slower  than  in  that  of  the 
Earth,  and  slower  in  Saturn  than  in  Jupiter.” f 

“  Our  knowledge  of  the  primeval  ages  of  the  world’s  physical 


t  Cosmos,  iv.  425. 

211 


*  Newton’s  Optics,  iv.  p.  438. 


24 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


history  does  not  extend  sufficiently  far  to  allots  of  our  depicting  the 
present  condition  of  things  as  one  of  development  *  ” 

4.  Astronomy  not  only  exposes  the  folly  of  past  cosmogonies,  hut 
demonstrates  the  impossibility  of  framing  any  true  theory  of  crea¬ 
tion,  and  thus  refutes  all  future  cosmogonies. 

The  grand  error  of  all  cosmogonies  lies  in  the  arrogant  assump¬ 
tion,  on  which  every  one  of  them  must  be  founded,  that  the  theorist 
is  acquainted  with  all  substances  and  all  forces  in  the  universe, 
and  with  all  the  modes  of  their  operation  :  not  only  at  the  present 
period,  and  on  this  earth,  but  in  all  past  ages,  and  in  worlds  in 
widely  different  and  utterly  unknown  situations;  for,  if  he  be  igno¬ 
rant  of  any  substance,  or  of  any  active  force  in  the  universe,  his 
generalization  is  avowedly  imperfect,  and  necessarily  false.  That 
unknown  force  must  have  had  its  influence  in  framing  the  world. 
Its  omission,  then,  is  fatal  to  the  theory  which  neglects  it.  A 
theory  of  creation,  for  instance,  which  would  neglect  the  attraction 
of  gravitation,  would  be  manifestly  false.  But  there  are  other  laws, 
as  far  reaching,  whose  omission  must  be  equally  fatal ;  for  instance, 
the  power  of  repulsion. 

A  conviction  of  this  truth  has  given  rise  to  a  constant  effort  to 
simplify  matters  down  to  the  level  of  our  ignorance,  by  reducing 
all  substances  to  one,  or  at  most  two,  simple  elements,  and  all  forces 
to  the  form  of  one  universal  and  irrational  law  ;  but  the  progress  of 
science  utterly  blasts  the  attempt.  Instead  of  simplifying  matters, 
the  very  chemical  processes  undertaken  with  that  view  revealed 
new  substances,  and  every  year  increases  our  knowledge  of  na¬ 
ture’s  variety.  No  scientific  man  now  dreams  of  one  primeval 
element.  In  the  same  way,  astronomy,  which,  it  was  boasted, 
would  enable  us  to  account  for  all  the  operations  of  the  universe, 
by  reducing  all  motion  to  one  mechanical  law,  has  revealed  to  us 
the  existence  of  other  forces  as  far  reaching  as  the  attraction  of 
gravitation,  and  more  powerful ;  and  substances  whose  nature  and 
combinations  are  utterly  unknown.  But  every  cosmogony  is  just 
an  attempt  to  simplify  matters,  by  ignoring  the  existence  of- these 
unknown  substances  and  mysterious  forces;  a  process  which 
science  condemns,  as  utterly  unphilosophieal  and  absurd. 

The  Sun’s  heat,  at  its  surface,  is  300,000  times  greater  than  at  the 
surface  of  the  earth  ;  but  a  tenth  of  this  amount,  collected  in  tho 


212 


*  Cosmos,  iii.  28. 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


25 


focus  of  a  lens,  dissipates  gold  and  platina  in  vapor.  When  the 
most  vivid  flames  which  we  can  produce  are  held  up  in  the  blaze 
of  his  rays,  they  disappear.  If  a  cataract  of  icebergs,  a  mile  high, 
and  wider  than  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  were  launched  into  the  Sun. 
with  the  velocity  of  a  cannon  ball,  the  small  portion  of  the  Sun’s 
heat  expended  on  our  earth  would  convert  that  vast  mass  into 
steam  as  fast  as  it  entered  his  atmosphere,  without  cooling  its  sur¬ 
face  in  the  least  degree.  “  The  great  mystery,  however,  is  to  con¬ 
ceive  how  so  enormous  a  conflagration  (if  such  it  be)  can  be  kept 
up.  Every  discovery  in  chemical  science  here  leaves  us  completely 
at  a  loss,  or  rather  seems  to  remove  farther  the  prospect  of  probable 
explanation.”  *  Yet,  the  Sun  is  the  nearest  of  the  fixed  stars,  and 
by  far  the  best  known,  and  most  nearly  related  to  us.  In  fact,  we 
are  dependent  on  his  influences  for  life  and  health.  But  if  the 
theorist  cannot  tell  his  substance,  or  the  nature  and  cause  of  the 
light  and  heat  he  sends  us,  how  can  he  presume  so  far  on  the 
world’s  credulity  as  to  present  a  theory  of  his  formation  ? 

“Astronomical  problems  accumulate  unsolved  upon  our  hands, 
because  we  cannot,  as  mechanicians,  chemists,  or  physiologists,  ex¬ 
periment  on  the  stars.  Are  they  built  of  the  same  material  as  our 
planet?  Are  Saturn’s  rings  solid,  or  liquid?  lias  the  moon  an 
atmosphere?  Are  the  atmospheres  of  the  planets  like  ours?  Are 
the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  begotten  of  combustion  ?  And  what 
is  the  fuel  which  feeds  these  unquenchable  fires  ?  These  are  ques¬ 
tions  which  we  ask,  and  variously  answer,  but  leave  unanswered 
after  all.”  f  But,  till  he  can  answer  these,  and  a  thousand  ques¬ 
tions  like  these,  let  no  man  presume  to  describe  the  formation  of 
these  unknown  orbs. 

Comets  constitute  by  far  the  greatest  number  of  the  bodies  of 
our  solar  system.  Arago  says  seven  millions  frequent  it,  within 
the  orbit  of  Uranus. $  They  are  the  largest  bodies  known  to  us, 
stretching  across  hundreds,  of  millions  of  miles.  They  approach 
nearer  to  this  earth  than  any  other  bodies,  sometimes  even  involv¬ 
ing  it  in  their  tails,  and  generally  exciting  great  alarm  among  its 
inhabitants.  But  the  nature  of  the  transparent  luminous  matter 
of  which  they  are  composed  is  utterly  unknown.  As  they  approach 
the  Sun,  they  come  under  an  influence  directly  the  opposite  of 


*  Herschell’s  Outlines,  vi.,  £400. 

f  Ur.  George  Wilson,  F.  It.  S.  E.,  in  Edinburg,  Phil.  Journal,  v.,  53. 
t  Somerville’s  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  3G0. 


213 


26 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


attraction.  The  tail  streams  away  from  the  sun,  over  a  distance  of 
millions  of  miles,  and  yet,  the  rate  of  the  comet's  motion  towards  the 
sun  is  quickened,  as  though  it  were  an  immense  rocket,  driven  for¬ 
ward  by  its  own  explosion. 

Further,  while  the  body  of  the  comet  travels  towards  the  Sun, 
sometimes  with  a  velocity  nearly  one-third  of  that  of  light,  the  tail 
sends  forth  coruscations  in  the  opposite  direction,  with  a  much 
greater  velocity.  The  greatest  velocity  with  which  we  are  ac¬ 
quainted  on  earth  is  the  velocity  of  light,  which  travels  a  million 
of  times  faster  than  a  cannon  ball,  or  at  the  rate  of  195,000  miles 
per  second ;  but  here  is  a  substance  capable  of  traveling  twenty- 
three  times  faster,  and  here  is  a  force  propelling  it,  twenty-three 
times  greater  than  any  which  exists  on  earth.  Its  existence  was 
first  discovered  by  the  coruscations  of  the  comet  of  1807.  “  In  less 

than  one  second,  streamers  shot  forth,  to  two  and  a  half  degrees  in 
length  ;  they  as  rapidly  disappeared,  and  issued  out  again,  some¬ 
times  in  proportions,  and  interrupted,  like  our  northern  lights. 
Afterwards,  the  tail  varied,  both  in  length  and  breadth ;  and  in 
some  of  the  observations,  the  streamers  shot  forth  from  the  whole 
expanded  end  of  the  tail,  sometimes  here,  sometimes  there,  in  an 
instant,  two  and  a  half  degrees  long ;  so  that  within  a  single  second 
they  must  have  shot  out  a  distance  of  4,000,000  miles*  Similar 
exhibitions  of  this  unknown  force  were  made  by  the  comet  of  1811, 
by  Halley’s  comet,  and  several  others. 

In  these  amazing  disclosures  of  the  unknown  forces  of  the 
heavens,  do  we  not  hear  a  voice  rebuking  the  presumption  of  igno¬ 
rant  theorists,  with  the  questions,  Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of 
heaven  ?  Canst  thou  set  the  dominion  thereof  in  the  earth  ?  Hear 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  modern  astronomers  expound  the 
moral  bearings  of  such  a  discovery  :  “  The  intimation  of  a  new  cos- 
inical  power — I  mean  of  one  so  unsuspected  before,  but  which  }^et 
can  follow  a  planet  through  all  its  wanderings — throws  us  back 
once  more  into  the  indefinite  obscure,  and  checks  all  dogmatism. 
H  ow  many  influences,  hitherto  undiscovered  by  our  ruder  senses, 
may  be  ever  streaming  toward  us,  and  modifying  every  terrestrial 
action.  And  yet,  because  we  had  traced  one  of  these,  we  have 
deemed  our  astronomy  complete !  Deeper  far,  and  nearer  to  the 
root  of  things,  is  that  world  with  which  man’s  destiny  is  entwined.”*}* 


*  Dick’s  Siderial  Heavens,  eh.  xx. 

214 


f  Nicholl's  Solar  System,  7G. 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


27 


We  can  have  no  reason,  save  our  own  self-sufficient  arrogance,  to 
believe  that  the  discovery  of  these  two  forces  exhausts  the  treasures 
of  infinite  wisdom.  Humboldt  thus  well  refutes  the  folly  of  such, 
an  imagination:  “The  imperfectibility  of  all  empirical  science, 
and  the  boundlessness  of  the  sphere  of  observation,  render  the  task 
of  explaining  the  forces  of  matter  by  that  which  is  variable  in 
matter,  an  impracticable  one.  What  has  been  already  perceived, 
by  no  means  exhausts  that  which  is  perceptible.  If,  simply  refer¬ 
ring  to  the  progress  of  science  in  our  own  times,  we  compare  the 
imperfect  physical  knowledge  of  Robert  Boyle,  Gilbert,  and  Hales, 
with  that  of  the  present  day,  and  remember  that  every  few  years 
are  characterized  by  an  increasing  rapidity  of  advance,  we  shall  be 
better  able  to  imagine  Ihe  periodical  and  endless  changes  which  all 
physical  sciences  are  destined  to  undergo.  New  substances  and  new 
forces  will  be  discovered.”* 

Thus,  all  true  science,  conscious  of  its  ignorance,  ever  leads  the 
mind  to  the  region  of  faith.  Its  first  lesson,  and  its  last  lesson,  is 
humility.  It  tells  us  that  every  cosmogony  which  the  children  of 
theory  so  laboriously  scratch  in  the  sand,  must  be  swept  away  by 
the  rising  tide  of  science.  When  we  seek  information  on  the  great 
questions  of  our  origin  and  destiny,  and  cry,  Where  shall  wisdom 
be  found,  and  what  is  the  place  of  understanding?  the  high  priests 
of  science  answer,  in  her  name,  “  It  is  not  in  me ;  the  measure 
thereof  is  longer  than  the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea.” 

We  receive  this  honest  acknowledgment  as  an  inestimable  boon. 
We  are  saved  thereby  the  wearying  labor  of  a  vain  and  useless 
search  after  knowledge  which  lies  not  in  her  domain.  We  come 
down  to  the  Bible  with  the  profound  conviction  that  science  can 
give  us  no  definite  information  of  our  origin,  no  certainty  of  our 
destiny,  and  but  an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  laws  which 
govern  this  present  world.  If  the  Bible  cannot  inform  us  on  these 
all-important  questions,  we  must  remain  ignorant.  Science  de¬ 
clares  she  cannot  teach  us.  The  Word  of  God  remains,  not  merely 
the  best,  but  absolutely  the  only — the  last  resource  of  the  anxious 
soul. 

The  Bible  gives  us  no  theory  of  creation.  It  simply  asserts  the 
fact,  that  “  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,”  but  does  not  tell  us  how  he  did  so.  The  knowledge  could 


*  Cosmos,  iii.  27. 


215 


28 


INFIDELITY  AMONG  THE  STARS. 


be  of  no  use  to  us,  for  he  never  means  to  employ  us  as  his  assis¬ 
tants  in  the  work  of  creation.  Nor  could  we  understand  the 
matter.  The  force  by  which  he  called  the  worlds  into  being,  and 
upholds  them  in  it,  exists  in  no  creature.  “lie  stretcheth  forth 
the  heavens  alone.  He  spreadeth  abroad  the  earth  by  himself.” 
“  lie  upholdeth  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power.” 

But  it  presents  anxious,  careworn,  humbled  souls  with  some¬ 
thing  infinitely  more  precious  than  cosmogonies:  even  an  explicit 

declaration  of  the  love  towards  them  of  Him  who  made  these  worlds. 

•  / 

“  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  thy  Redeemer, 

“And  he  who  formed  thee  from  the  womb: 

“  I  am  the  Lord,  who  maketh  all  things ; 

“  Who  stretcheth  forth  the  heavens  alone,  ' 

“  And  spreadeth  abroad  the  earth,  by  myself.” 

Yes,  the  Creator  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  who  upholds  all  things 
by  the  word  of  his  power,  became  a  man  like  you,  and  dwelt  on 
earth,  and  suffered  the  sorrow,  the  shame,  the  pain,  the  death,  that 
sinful  man  deserved;  and  when  he  had  by  himself  purged  our 
sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high.  From 
that  heavenly  throne  his  voice  now  sounds,  Reader,  in  your  ear, 
“Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest” 


Wo.  32. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


In'  the  last  Tract  we  saw  Astronomy  demonstrating  our  need  of 
a  revelation  from  God.  In  this  we  shall  see  how  it  illustrates  and 
confirms  that  revelation.  Seen  through  the  telescope,  the  Bible 
glows  with  celestial  splendor.  Even  its  cloudy  mysteries  are  dis¬ 
played  as  clouds  of  light,  and  its  long-misunderstood  phrases  are 
resolved,  by  a  scientific  investigation,  into  galaxies  of  brilliant 
truths,  proclaiming  to  the  philosopher  that  the  Book  which  de¬ 
scribes  them  is  as  truly  the  Word  of  God,  as  the  heavens  which  it 
describes  are  his  handiwork. 

If,  once  in  a  century,  a  profound  practical  astronomer  is  found 
dcnjdng  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  he  will  either  acknowledge,  or 
discover  himself,  not  familiar  with  its  contents.  For  the  most 
part,  the  charges  brought  against  the  Bible,  of  contradicting  the 
facts  of  Astronomy,  are  based  upon  misstatements  and  mistakes  of 
its  teachings,  and  so  do  not  fall  within  the  range  of  the  telescope, 
or  the  department  of  the  observatory.  The  Sabbath-school  teacher, 
and  not  the  astronomer,  is  the  proper  person  to  correct  such  errors. 
A  few  months’  instruction,  in  the  Bible  class  of  any  well  conducted 
Sabbath-school,  would  save  some  of  our  popular  anti-Bible  lecturers 
from  the  sin  of  misrepresenting  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  shame 
of  hearing  children  laugh  at  their  blunders. 

A  favorite  field  for  the  display  of  their  knowledge  of  science,  and 
ignorance  of  the  art  of  reading,  by  our  modern  infidels,  is  the 
Bible  account  of  creation,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  which  is 
alleged  to  be  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the  known  facts  of  As¬ 
tronomy  and  Geology.  Leaving  the  latter  out  of  view,  for  the 
present,  the  astronomical  objections  may  all  be  arranged  under 
four  heads.  First,  that  the  Bible  account  of  the  creation  of  man, 
only  some  six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago,  must  be  false — because 
the  records  of  astronomical  observations,  taken  more  than  seven¬ 
teen  thousand  years  ago,  by  the  Hindoos  and  Egyptians,  are  still 
in  existence,  and  have  been  verified.  Second,  that  the  light  of 
some  of  the  stars,  now  shining  upon  us,  and  especially  of  some  of 
the  distant  nebulae,  must  have  left  them  millions  of  years  ago,  to 
have  traveled  over  the  vast  space  which  separates  them  from  us, 
and  be  visible  on  our  globe  now ;  whereas,  the  Bible  teaches  that 

217 


2 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


the  universe  was  created  only  some  six  or  seven  thousand  years 
ago.  Third,  that  the  Bible  represents  God  as  creating  the  sky  a  - 
solid  crystal,  or  metallic  sphere,  or  hemisphere  (they  are  not  agreed 
which),  to  which  the  stars  are  fastened,  and  with  which  they  re¬ 
volve  round  the  earth  ;  which,  every  schoolboy  knows  to  be  absurd. 
Fourth,  that  the  Bible  represents  God  as  creating  the  Sun  and 
Moon  only  two  days  before  Adam,  and  as  creating  light  before  the 
Sun ;  which  is  also  held  to  be  absurd. 

1.  The  first  of  these  objections — that  the  Hindoos  and  Egyptians 
made  astronomical  observations  thousands  of  years  before  Adam, 
and  that  the  accuracy  of  these  observations  has  been  verified  by 
modern  calculations — is  simply  untrue.  No  such  observations 
were  ever  made.  The  pretended  records  of  such  have  been  proved, 
in  the  case  of  the  Hindoo  astronomy,  to  be  forgeries,  and  in  the 
case  of  the  Egyptian  records,  blunders  of  the  discoverers.  There 
is  not  an  authentic  uninspired  astronomical  observation  extant  for 
three  thousand  years  after  Adam. 

The  objection,  however,  is  worth  noticing,  and  its  history  worth 
remembering,  as  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  ignorant  men 
swallow  impudent  falsehoods,  if  they  only  seem  to  contradict  the 
Word  of  Truth.  When  the  labors  of  Oriental  Scholars  had  made 
the  Vedas  and  Shnsters — the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos — accessi¬ 
ble  to  European  philosophers,  a  wonderful  shout  was  raised  among 
infidels.  “  Here,”  it  was  said,  “is  the  true  chronology.  Wo 
always  knew  that  man  was  not  a  degenerate  creature,  fallen  from 
a  higher  estate,  some  few  thousand  years  ago,  but  that  he  has  ex¬ 
isted  from  eternity,  in  a  constant  progress  toward  his  present  lofty 
position  ;  and  now  we  have  the  authentic  records  of  the  most  an¬ 
cient  and  civilized  people  in  the  world — the  people  of  India — reach¬ 
ing  back  for  millions  of  years  before  the  Mosaic  cosmogony,  and 
allowing  ample  time  for  the  development  of  the  noble  savage  into 
the  cultivated  philosopher.  These  records  have  every  mark  of 
truth,  giving  minute  details  of  events,  and  histories  of  successive 
lines  of  princes ;  and,  moreover,  record  the  principal  astronomical 
facts  of  the  successive  periods — eclipses,  comets,  positions  of  stars, 
&c. — which  attest  their  veracity.  Henceforth,  the  Hebrew  records 
must  hide  their  heads.  Neither  as  poetry  nor  history  can  they 
pretend  to  compare  with  the  Vedas.” 

.  The  Hindoo  Shasters  were  accordingly,  for  a  time,  in  high  re¬ 
pute,  among  people  who  knew  very  little  about  them.  Even  Dr. 

218 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


3 


Adam  Clarke  was  so  far  led  away  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  as  to 
pollute  his  valuable  commentary  by  the  insertion  of  the  Gitagovinda, 
after  the  Chaldee  Targum  on  the  Song  of  Solomon  ;  where  the  cu¬ 
rious  reader  can  satisfy  himself  as  to  the  scientific  value  of  such 
Pantheistic  dotings.  By  the  infidels  of  Britain  and  America  they 
were  appealed  to  as  standard  works,  of  undoubted  authority ;  and 
hundreds,  Avho  declared  that  it  was  irrational  credulity  to  believe 
in  the  Bible,  risked  their  souls  on  the  faith  of  the  Yedas,  of  which 
they  never  had  read  a  single  sentence  ! 

Now,  when  we  remember  that  these  veracious  chronicles  reach 
back  through  maha  yngs  of  4,320,000  years  of  mortals,  a  thousand 
of  which,  or  4,320,000,000,  make  a  kalpa ,  or  one  day  of  the  life  of 
Brahma,  while  his  night  is  of  the  same  duration,  and  his  life  con¬ 
sists  of  a  hundred  years  of  such  days  and  nights,  about  the  middle 
of  which  period  the  little  span  of  our  existence  is  placed  ; — that 
among  the  facts  of  the  histor}r,  are  the  records  of  the  seven  great 
continents  of  the  world,  separated  by  seven  rivers,  and  seven 
chains  of  mountains,  four  hundred  thousand  miles  high  (reaching 
only  to  the  moon) ;  of  the  families  of  their  kings,  one  of  whom  had 
a  hundred  sons,  another  only  ten  thousand,  another  sixty  thousand, 
who  were  born  in  a  pumpkin,  nourished  in  pans  of  milk,  reduced 
to  ashes  by  the  curse  of  a  sage,  and  restored  to  life  by  the  waters 
of  the  Ganges  ; — and  that  among  the  astronomical  observations  by 
which  the  accuracy  of  these  extraordinary  facts  is  confirmed,  are 
accounts  of  deluges,  in  which  the  waters  not  only  rose  above  the 
tops  of  earth’s  mountains,  but  above  the  seven  inferior  and  three 
superior  worlds,  reaching  even  to  the  Pole  Star* — we  may  well 
wonder  at  the  faith  which  could  receive  all  this  as  so  true,  that  on 
the  strength  of  it  they  rejected  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  as  false. 
Even  Voltaire  ridiculed  these  stories. 

But  a  visionary  man,  named  Baillie,  calculated  the  alleged  ob¬ 
servations  backwards,  and  found  them  sufficiently  correct  to  satisfy 
him  that  all  the  rest  of  the  story  was  equally  true.  It  never  seems 
to  have  occurred  to  him,  that  if  he  could  calculate  eclipses  back¬ 
wards,  so  could  the  Hindoos.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  calculate  an 
eclipse,  or  the  position  of  a  planet,  backwards,  as  forwards.  If  I 
watch  the  motion  of  the  hands  of  a  clock  accurately,  and  find  that 
the  little  hand  moves  over  the  twelfth  of  a  circle  every  hour,  and 


*  Duff’s  India,  127. 


219 


4 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


the  large  hand  around  the  circle  in  the  same  time,  and  that  the 
large  hand,  now  at  noon,  covers  the  little  one,  I  can  calculate  that 
at  sixteen  minutes  and  a  quarter  past  three  it  will  nearly  cover  it 
again  ;  but  then,  it  is  just  as  easy  to  count  that  the  two  hands  were 
covered  at  sixteen  minutes  and  a  quarter  before  nine  that  morning, 
or  that  they  were  exactly  in  line  at  G  a.  m.  If  my  clock  would 
keep  going  at  the  same  rate  for  a  thousand  years,  I  could  predict 
the  position  of  the  hands  at  any  hour  of  the  29th  of  March,  of  the 
year  2857  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  very  same  calculation  applied 
the  other  way  would  show  the  position  that  the  hands  would  have 
had  a  thousand  years  ago,  or  five  thousand  years  ago,  just  as  well. 
And  if  I  Avere  to  allege  that  my  clock  Avas  made  by  Tubal  Cain, 
before  the  flood,  and  for  proof  of  the  fact  declare,  that  on  the  first 
of  January,  3857,  n.  c.,  at  6  o’clock,  p.  m.,  I  had  seen  the  tAvo 
hands  directly  in  line,  and  some  wiseacre  were  to  calculate  the' 
time,  and  find  that  at  that  hour  the  hands  ought  to  have  been  just 
in  that  position,  and  conclude  thence  that  I  Avas  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  antediluvians,  and  the  clock  no  less  certainly  a  specimen  of 
the  craft  of  the  first  artificer  in  brass  and  iron,  the  argument  would 
be  precisely  parallel  to  the  infidel’s  argument  from  the  Tirvalore 
Tables,  and  the  astronomy  of  the  Vedas. 

But  suppose  my  clock  ran  a  little  slow:  say  half  a  minute  in  the 
month,  or  so;  or  that  it  Avas  made  to  keep  siderial  time,  which 
differs  by  a  little  from  solar  time,  and  that  I  did  not  knoAv  exactly 
what  the  difference  was;  it  is  evident  that  on  a  long  stretch  of  some 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  years,  I  would  get  out  of  my  reckoning, 
and  the  hands  would  not  have  been  in  the  positions  I  had  calcu¬ 
lated.  Now,  this  was  just  what  happened  with  the  Brahmins  and 
their  calculations.  The  clock  of  the  heavens  keeps  a  uniform  rate 
of  going,  but  they  made  a  slight  mistake  in  the  counting  of  it ;  and 
so  did  their  infidel  friends.  But  our  modern  astronomers  ha\-e  got 
the  true  time,  set  their  clocks,  and  made  their  tables  by  it;  and  .on 
applying  these  tables  to  the  pretended  Hindoo  observations,  find 
that  they  are  all  wrong,  and  that  no  such  eclipses  as  they  allege 
ever  did,  or  possibly  could  have  happened  in  our  solar  system.*  So 
the  Hindoo  astronomy  is  now  consigned  to  the  same  tomb  Avith 
the  Hindoo  chronology  and  cosmogony,  except  when  a  missionary, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  exhibits  it  to  the  pupils  of  his  English 


*  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  p.  83. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


5 


school,  as  a  specimen  of  the  falsehoods  which  have  ever  formed  the 
swaddling  bands  of  Pantheism;  or  when  some  Louisiana  planter 
astonishes  a  Yankee  schoolmaster  in  search  of  employment,  with 
an  exhibition  of  the  profound  philosophy  sheltered  among  the  cane- 
brakes. 

Failing  in  the  attempt  to  substitute  Brahminism  for  Christianity, 
infidels  beat  a  retreat  from  India,  and  went  down  into  Egypt  for 
help.  Here  they  made  prodigious  discoveries  of  the  scientific  and 
religious  truths  believed  by  the  worshipers  of  dogs  and  dung- 
beetles,  recorded  upon  the  coffins  of  holy  bulls,  and  the  temples 
sacred  to  crows  and  crocodiles.  The  age  was  favorable  for  French 
discoveries. 

Napoleon  and  his  savans  cut  out  of  the  ceiling  of  a  temple,  at 
Dendera,  in  Egypt,  a  stone  covered  with  uncouth  astronomical, 
astrological,  and  hieroglyphic  figures,  which  they  insisted  was  a 
representation  of  the  sk}^  at  the  time  the  temple  was  built;  and 
finding  a  division  made  between  the  signs  of  the  Crab  and  the 
Lion,  and  marks  for  the  Sun  and  Moon  there,  they  took  it  into 
their  heads  that  the  Sun  must  have  entered  the  Zodiac  at  that  spot, 
on  the  year  this  Zodiac  was  made;  and  calculating  back,  found 
that  must  be  at  least  seventeen  thousand  years  ago.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  visited  the  wonderful  antediluvian  monument,  in  the 
National  Library,  in  Paris,  where  it  had  been  brought;  and  where 
infidel  commentators  were  never  wanting  to  inform  them  that  this 
remarkable  stone  proved  the  whole  Bible  to  be  a  series  of  lies.  A 
professor  of  the  University  of  Breslau  published  a  pamphlet,  enti¬ 
tled  Invincible  Proof  that  the  Earth  is  at  least  ten  times  older  than 
is  taught  by  the  Bible.  Scores  of  such  publications  followed,  and 
for  forty  years  infidel  newspapers,  magazines,  and  reviews,  kept 
trumpeting  this  great  refutation  of  the  Bible.  From  these  it  de¬ 
scended  to  the  vulgar,  with  additions  and  improvements  ;  and  it  is 
now  frequently  alleged  as  proving  that  “ten  thousand  years  before 
Adam  was  born,  the  priests  of  Egypt  were  carving  astronomy  on 
the  pyramids.”  There  is  scarcely  one  of  my  French  or  German 
readers  who  has  not  heard  of  it. 

It  did  not  shake  the  skeptic’s  credulity  in  the  least  that  no  two 
of  the  savans  were  agreed,  by  some  thousands  of  years,  how  old  it 
was — that  they  could  not  tell  what  the  Egyptian  system  of  astron¬ 
omy  was — and  that  none  of  them  could  read  the  hieroglyphics  which 
explained  it.  Whatever  might  be  doubtful,  of  one  thing  they  were 

221 


6 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


all  perfectly  sure :  that  it  was  far  older  than  the  creation.  But  in 
1832  the  curious  Egyptian  astronomy  was  studied,  and  it  appeared 
that  the  Sun  and  Moon  were  so  placed  on  the  Zodiac  to  mark  the 
beginning  of  the  year  there  ;  and  the  dividing  line  fenced  off  one- 
half  of  the  sky  under  the  care  of  the  Sun,  while  the  other  was  placed 
under  the  Moon’s  patronage.  Then  it  was  discovered  that  the  po¬ 
sitions  of  the  stars  were  represented  by  the  pictures  of  the  gods 
whose  names  they  bore — Jupiter,  Saturn,  &c. — and  by  calculating 
the  places  of  these  pictures  back,  it  was  found  that  this  Zodiac  rep¬ 
resented  their  places  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  37 :  the  year  of  the 
birth  of  Nero,  a  great  temple-builder  and  repairer.  Finally,  Cham- 
pollion  learned  to  read  the  hieroglyphics,  and  the  names,  surnames, 
and  titles  of  the  emperors  Tiberius,  Claudius,  Nero,  and  Domitian, 
were  found  on  the  temple  of  Denderah  ;  and  on  the  portico  of  the 
temple  of  Esneh,  which  had  been  declared  to  be  a  few  thousand 
years  older  than  that  of  Denderah,  the  names  of  Claudius  and  Anto¬ 
ninus  Pius;  while  the  whole  workmanship  and  style  of  building 
have  satisfied  all  antiquarians  that  these  buildings  were  erected 
during  the  declining  days  of  art  in  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
Roman  title,  autocrat,  engraved  on  the  Zodiac  itself,  attests  its 
antiquity  to  be  not  quite  two  thousand,  instead  of  seventeen  or 
twenty-seven  thousand  years. 

But,  not  satisfied  with  merely  demolishing  the  batteries  of  infi¬ 
delity,  astronomy  has  been  employed  to  ascertain  the  dates  of 
numbers  of  events  recorded  on  Egyptian  monuments  to  have  hap¬ 
pened  to  one  or  other  of  the  Pharaohs,  “beloved  of  Ammon,  and 
brother  of  the  Sun,”  when  such  a  star  was  in  such  a  position. 
Mr.  Poole  has  spent  years  in  gathering  such  inscriptions,  and 
in  calculating  the  dates  thus  furnished.  The  astronomer  royal, 
at  Greenwich,  Mr.  Air}q  has  reviewed  the  calculations,  and  finds 
them  correct.  Wilkinson,  the  great  Egyptologist,  agrees  with 
their  conclusions.  And  the  result  is,  that  the  astronomical  chro¬ 
nology  of  the  Egyptian  monuments  sustains  the  Bihle  Chronology .* 
Geology  comes  forward  to  confirm  the  testimony  of  her  elder  sister, 
and  assures  us  that  the  alleged  vast  antiquity  of  the  Egyptian 
monuments  is  impossible,  as  it  is  not  more  than  5,000  years  since 
the  soil  of  Egypt  first  appeared  above  water,  as  a  muddy  morass. f 
The  learned  Adrian  Balbo  thus  sums  up  the  whole  question:  “No 


*  Poole’s  Horae  Egyptiacae. 

222 


t  Henri  L’Egypte  Pharonique. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


7 


monument,  either  astronomical  or  historical,  has  yet  been  able  to 
prove  the  books  of  Moses  false;  but  with  them ,  on  the  contrary , 
agree ,  in  the  most  remarkable  manner ,  the  results  obtained  by  the 
most  learned  philologists,  and  the  profoundest  geometricians .* 

2.  To  the  second  objection — That  astronomers  have  discovered 
stars  whose  light  must  have  been  millions  of  years  traveling  to  this 
earth,  and  that  consequently  these  stars  must  have  existed  millions 
of  years  ago,  and  therefore  the  Bible  makes  a  false  declaration 
when  it  says  that  the  universe  was  created  only  some  six  or  seven 
thousand  years  ago — I  reply  by  asking,  Where  does  the  Bible  say  so? 

“What/'  says  our  objector,  “is  not  that  the  good  old  orthodox 
doctrine  of  Christians  and  commentators?  Do  they  not  unani¬ 
mously  denounce  geologists  and  astronomers  as  heretics,  for  assert¬ 
ing  the  vast  antiquity  of  the  earth?” 

We  shall  see  presently  that  no  such  unanimity  of  denunciation 
has  ever  existed,  and  that  some  of  the  most  ancient  and  learned 
Christian  commentators  taught  the  antiquity  of  the  earth,  from  the 
Bible,  before  geology  was  born.  But  that  is  not  the  question 
before  us  just  now.  We  are  not  asking  what  the  good  old  ortho¬ 
dox  doctrine  of  Christians,  or  the  unanimous  opinion  of  commenta¬ 
tors  may  have  been,  but  what  is  the  reading  of  the  Bible — What 
does  this  book  say ? — not,  “What  does  somebody  think?” 

“  Well,”  replies  our  objector,  “  does  not  the  Bible  say,  in  the  first 
of  Genesis,  that  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days, 
and  Adam  on  the  sixth ;  and  are  not  chronologists  agreed  that  that 
was  not  more  than  seven  thousand  years  ago,  at  the  very  utmost?” 

If  the  Bible  had  said  that  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
in  six  days,  and  that  the  end  of  that  period  was  only  seven  thou¬ 
sand  years  ago,  it  would  by  no  means  follow  that  the  beginning  of 
it  was  only  a  few  hours  before  that;  for  every  Bible  reader  knows, 
that  the  most  common  use  of  the  word  day,  in  scripture,  is  to  de¬ 
note,  not  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours,  but  a  period  of  time  which 
may  be  of  various  lengths.f  In  this  very  narrative,  (Gen.  2:5)  it  is 
used  to  denote  the  whole  period  of  the  six  days’  work:  “  In  the  day 
the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens.”  Does  it  mean  just 
twenty-four  hours  there?  In  the  first  of  Genesis,  its  duration  is 
defined  to  consist  of  “  the  evening  and  the  morning.”  Before  our 
infidel  chronologist  finds  out  the  Bible  date  of  creation,  he  must  be 


f  See  Cruden’s  Concordance,  Art.  Day. 

223  * 


^  *  Atlas  Ethnograplrique,  Eth.  I. 


8 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


able  to  tell  us  of  what  length  was  the  evening  which  preceded  the 
Jirst  morning,  and  with  it  constituted  the  first  day  ?  God  has  of 
set  purpose  placed  stumbling  blocks  for  scoffers  at  the  entrance 
and  the  exit  of  the  Bible,  as  a  rebuke  to  pride  and  vain  curiosity.* 
lie  nowhere  says  that  the  first  of  the  six  days  of  Genesis  was  the 
Jirst  day,  absolutely,  of  the  earth’s  existence.  And  lest  any  one 
should  think  so,  from  the  use  of  the  ordinal  adjective  Jirst,  he  does 
not  use  that  word  ;  but  while  each  of  the  other  da}^s  is  called  “  day 
second,”  “  day  third,”  &c.,  the  first  of  the  series  is  distinguished 
by  the  cardinal  numeral,  as  “  day  one  ;”  literally,  “And  evening  was 
and  morning  was  dag  one”  The  first  day  and  the  last  day  are 
hidden  from  man. 

But  if  our  objector  had  read  the  Bible  attentively,  he  would  have 
seen  that  it  does  not  say  that  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
in  six  days.  Before  it  begins  to  give  any  account  of  the  six  days’ 
work,  it  tells  us  of  a  previous  state  of  disorder  ;  and  going  back 
beyond  that  again,  it  says,  “In  the  beginning,  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.”  It  is  as  self-evident  that  this  beginning 
was  before  the  six  days’  work,  as  that  the  world  must  have  existed 
before  it  could  be  adjusted  to  its  present  form.  How  long  before, 
the  Bible  does  not  say,  nor  does  the  objector  pretend  to  know.  It 
may  have  been  as  many  millions  of  years  as  he  assigns  to  the  stars, 
or  twice  as  many,  for  any  thing  he  knows  to  the  contrary.  lie 
must  have  overlooked  the  first  two  verses  of  the  Bible,  else  he  had 
never  made  this  objection  ;  which  is  simply  a  blunder,  arising  from 
incapacity  to  read  a  few  verses  of  Scripture  correctly. 

But  it  is  replied,  “  Does  not  the  Bible  say,  in  the  fourth  com¬ 
mandment,  ‘In  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven,  and  earth,  and  the 
sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,”  &c.  ?  True.  But  we  are  speaking 
just  now  of  a  very  different  work:  the  work  of  creation.  If  any 
one  does  not  know  the  difference  between  create  and  make,  let  him 
turn  to  his  dictionary,  and  Webster  will  inform  him  that  the  pri¬ 
mary  literal  meaning  of  create  is,  “  To  produce ;  to  bring  into 
being,  from  nothing;  to  cause  to  exist.”  The  example  he  gives  to 
illustrate  his  definition  is  this  verse,  “  In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth.”  But  the  primary  meaning  of  make  is, 
“To  compel:  to  constrain;”  thence,  “to  form  of  materials;”  and 
he  illustrates  the  generic  difference  between  these  two  words  by  a 


224 


*  Dan.  12 :  10.  Job,  38 :  4.  Col.  2 :  18. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


9 


quotation  from  Dwight:  “God  not  only  made,  but  created:  he  not 
only  made  the  work,  but  the  materials.”  Both  words  are  as  good 
translations  of  the  Hebrew  originals,  bra,  and  oshe,  as  can  be  given. 

If  any  of  my  readers  has  not  a  dictionary,  he  can  satisfy  himself 
thoroughly  as  to  the  different  meanings  of  these  two  words,  and  of 
their  equivalents  in  the  original  Hebrew,  by  looking  at  their  use 
in  his  Bible.  Thus,  he  will  find  create  applied  to  the  creation  of 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  in  the  beginning,  when  there  could  have 
been  no  pre-existent  materials  to  make  them  from;  unless  we  adopt 
the  Atheistic  absurdity,  of  the  eternity  of  matter — that  is  to  say, 
that  the  paving-stones  made  themselves .*  Then  it  is  applied  to  the 
production  of  animal  life — v.  21 — which  is  not  a  product  or  combi¬ 
nation  of  any  lifeless  matter,  but  a  direct  and  constant  resistance 
to  the  chemical  and  mechanical  laws  which  govern  lifeless  matter : 
“God  created  great  whales,  and  every  living  creature  that  moveth.”f 
Next  it  is  applied  to  the  production  of  the  human  race,  as  a  species 
distinct  from  all  other  living  creatures,  and  not  derived  from  any 
of  them.  “  God  created  man  in  his  own  image.”  J  It  is  in  like 
manner  applied  to  all  God’s  subsequent  bestowals  of  animal  life 
and  rational  souls,  which  are  directly  bestowed  by  God,  and  are 
not  in  the  power  of  any  creature  to  give.  “  Thou  sendest  forth 
thy  spirit :  they  are  created .”  “  Remember  now  thy  Creator,  in 

the  days  of  thy  youth.”  §  In  all  these  instances,  the  use  of  the 
word  determines  its  literal  meaning  to  be  what  Webster  defines  it: 
“  To  bring  into  being  from  nothing.” 

The  metaphorical  use  of  the  word  is  equally  expressive  of  its 
literal  meaning,  for  it  is  applied  to  the  production  of  new  disposi¬ 
tions  of  mind  and  soul  utterly  opposite  to  those  previously  existing. 
“  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart ;”  which  God  thus  explains :  “  A  new 
heart  will  I  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you  ;  and 
I  will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  I  will  give 
you  an  heart  of  flesh.”  ||  The  Hebrew  word  bra  has  as  many 
derivative  meanings  as  our  English  word  create;  as  we  speak  of 
“creating  a  peer,”  “  long  abstinence  creating  uneasiness,”  &c. ;  but 
these  no  more  change  the  primitive  idea  in  the  one  case  than  in  the 
other. 


*  TVact  23,  Did  the,  World  malce  itself?  g  Psalm  104  :  30.  Eccl.  12  :  1. 
f  Gen.  1 :  21.  |]  Psalm  51 :  10.  Ezekiel,  36 :  26. 

%  Gen.  1:  27. 

15 


225 


10 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


From  this  word  create,  the  Bible  very  plainly  distinguishes  the 
words  make  and  form,  using  them  as  the  complement  of  the  former, 
in  many  passages  which  speak  of  both  creation  and  making.  Thus, 
man  was  both  created  and  made.  Ilis  life  and  soul  are  spoken  of 
as  a  creation;  his  body  as  a  formation  from  the  dust;  his  deputed 
authority  over  the  earth  also  implies  a  primal  creation,  and  subse¬ 
quent  investiture ;  and  so  both  terms  are  applied  to  it.  So  the 
words  make  and  form  are  applied  to  the  production  of  the  bodies 
of  animals  from  pre-existing  materials,  while  animal  life  is  ever 
spoken  of  as  a  product  of  creative  power.  But,  that  we  may  see 
that  these  processes  are  distinct,  and  that  the  words  which  express 
them  have  distinctive  meanings,  the  Author  of  the  Bible  takes  care 
to  use  them  both  in  reference  to  this  very  work,  in  such  a  way  that 
we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  he  intends  some  distinction,  unless  we 
suppose  that  he  fills  the  Bible  with  useless  tautologies.  For  in¬ 
stance,  “  On  the  seventh  day,  God  rested  from  all  his  work,  which 
God  created  and  made.”  “  These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  when  they  were  created ;  in  the  day  the  Lord  God 
made  the  earth  and  the  heavens.”  “But  now  thus  saith  the  Lord 
that  created  thee,  Jacob,  and  he  that  formed  thee,  O  Israel.”  “For 
thus  saith  the  Lord,  that  created  the  heavens,  God  himself,  that 
formed  the  earth,  and  made  it ;  lie  hath  established  it ;  He  created 
it  not  in  confusion;  he  formed  it  to  be  inhabited.”*  In  all  these 
passages  creation  is  clearly  distinguished  from  formation  and 
making,  if  the  Bible  is  not  a  mass  of  senseless  repetitions.  If 
create,  and  make,  and  form,  have  all  the  same  meaning,  why  use 
them  all  in  the  same  verse.  These,  and  many  similar  passages, 
show  that  the  Bible  teaches  the  work  of  creation — calling  things 
into  being — to  be  previous  to  and  distinct  from  the  work  of  making 
■ — forming  of  materials  already  created. 

Between  these  two  widely  different  processes — of  the  original 
creation  of  the  universe,  and  the  subsequent  preparation  of  the 
habitable  earth,  by  the  six  days’  work — two  intervening  periods 
are  indicated  by  scripture,  both  of  indefinite  length.  The  first  of 
these  is  that  which  intervened  between  the  original  creation  and 
the  period  of  disorder  indicated  in  the  second  verse.  The  second 
is  that  disordered  period  during  which  the  earth  continued  without 
form  and  void. 


226 


*  Gen.  2 :  1-5.  Isa.  43 : 1-7  ;  45 :  1,  2. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


11 


That  original  chaos  which  some  would  find  in  the  second  verse, 
never  had  any  existence,  save  in  the  brains  of  atheistic  philoso¬ 
phers.  It  is  purely  absurd.  God  never  created  a  chaos.  Man 
never  saw  it.  The  crystals  of  the  smallest  grain  of  sand,  the 
sporules  of  the  humblest  fungus'on  the  rotten  tree,  the  animalculce 
in  the  filthiest  pool  of  mud,  are  as  orderly  in  their  arrangements, 
as  perfect  after  their  kind,  and  as  wisely  adapted  to  their  station, 
as  the  angels  before  the  throne  of  God.  And  as  man  never  saw,  so 
he  has  no  language  to  describe  a  state  of  original  disorder ;  for 
every  word  he  can  use  implies  a  previous  state  of  regularity;  as,  dis¬ 
order  tells  of  order  dissolved;  con-fusion  of  previous  forms  melted 
together.  So  the  poets  who  have  tried  to  describe  a  chaos  have 
been  obliged  to  represent  it  as  the  wreck  of  a  former  state. 

Both  the  Bible  language  and  the  Bible  narrative  correspond  to 
the  philosophy  and  philology  of  the  case ;  for,  by  the  use  of  the 
substantive  verb,  in  the  past  tense,  implying  progressive  being, 
according  to  the  usual  force  of  the  word  in  Hebrew,  we  are  told 
lit-erallv,  “the  earth  became  without  form  and  void.”  God  did  not 
create  it  so,  but  after  it  was  created,  and  by  a  series  of  revolutions 
not  recorded,  it  became  disordered  and  empty.  The  Holy  Spirit 
takes  care  to  explain  this  verse,  by  quoting  it  in  Jer.  4:  23,  as  the 
appropriate  symbolical  description  of  the  state  of  a  previously  ex¬ 
isting  and  regularly  constituted  body  politic,  reduced  to  confusion 
by  the  calamities  of  war.  Again,  he  explains  both  the  terms  used 
in  it  in  Isa.  34:  11,  by  using  them  to  describe,  not  the  rude  and 
undigested  mass  of  the  heathen  poet,  but  the  wilderness  condition 
of  a  ravaged  country,  and  the  desolate  ruins  of  once  beautiful  and 
populous  cities:  “He  will  stretch  out  upon  it  the  line  confusion, 
and  the  stones  of  emptiness In  both  these  cases  the  previous  ex¬ 
istence  of  an  orderly  and  populous  state  is  implied.  And  finally, 
we  are  expressly  assured,  that  the  state  of  disorder  mentioned  in 
the  2d  verse  of  Gen.  1,  was  not  the  original  condition  of  the  earth — 
Isaiah,  45  :  18 — where  the  very  same  word  is  used  as  in  Gen.  1 :  2, 
“  He  created  it  not,  teu,  disordered,  in  confusion  ”  The  period  of 
the  earth’s  previous  existence  in  an  orderly  state,  or  that  occupied 
by  the  revolutions  and  catastrophes  which  disordered  its  surface, 
is  not  recorded  in  scripture. 

The  second  period  is  that  of  disorder,  w^hich  must  have  been  of 
some  duration,  more  or  less,  and  is  plainly  implied  to  have  been 
of  considerable  length,  in  the  declaration  that  “the, Spirit  of  the 

227 


12 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


Lord  moved ” — literally  was  brooding  (a  figure  taken  from  the  in¬ 
cubation  of  fowls) — “  upon  the  face  of  the  waters/7  But  no  portion 
of  Scripture  gives  any  intimation  of  the  length  of  this  period. 

If,  then,  astronomers  and  geologists  assert  that  the  earth  was 
millions,  or  hundreds  of  millions  of  years  in  process  of  preparation 
for  its  present  state,  by  a  long  series  of  successive  destructions  and 
renovations,  and  gradual  formations,  there  is  not  one  word  in  the 
Bible  to  contradict  that  opinion  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  very  many 
texts  which  fully  and  unequivocally  imply  its  truth.  But,  as  the 
knowledge  of  the  exact  age  of  the  earth  is  by  no  means  necessary 
to  any  man’s  present  happiness,  or  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  it  is 
no-where  taught  in  the  Bible.  God  has  given  us  the  Stars  to  teach 
us  Astronomy,  the  Earth  to  teach  us  Geology,  and  the  Bible  to 
teach  us  Religion,  and  neither  contradicts  the  other. 

This  is  no  new  interpretation,  evoked  to  meet  the  necessities  of 
modern  science.  The  Jewish  Rabbins,  and  those  of  the  early 
Christian  fathers  who  gave  any  attention  to  criticism,  are  perfectly 
explicit  in  recognizing  these  distinctions.  The  doctrine  of  the 
creation  of  the  world  only  six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago,  is  a 
product  (?f  monkish  ignorance  of  the  original  language  of  the  Bible. 
But  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  Chrysostom,  and  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
after  Justin  Martyr,  teach  the  existence  of  an  indefinite  period 
between  the  creation  and  the  formation  of  all  things.  Basil  and 
Origen  account  for  the  existence  of  light  before  the  Sun,  by  alleging 
that  the  Sun  existed,  but  that  the  chaotic  atmosphere  prevented 
his  rays  from  being  visible  till  the  first  day,  and  his  light  till  the 
third.*  Augustine,  in  his  first  homily,  represents  the  first  state 
of  the  earth,  in  Gen.  1:  1,  as  bearing  the  same  relation  to  its 
finished  state,  that  the  seed  of  a  tree  does  to  the  trunk,  branches, 
leaves,  and  fruit.  Horsley,  Edward  King,  Jennings,  Baxter,  and 
many  others,  who  wrote  during  the  last  two  centuries,  but  before 
the  period  of  geological  discovery,  explained  the  2d  verse  substan¬ 
tially  as  did  Bishop  Patrick,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  “IIow 
long  all  things  continued  in  confusion,  we  are  not  told.  It  might 
have  been,  for  any  thing  that  is  here  revealed ,  a  very  great  while,”  f 

Some  persons,  however,  have  supposed  that  the  chaos  of  the 
second  verse  succeeded  immediately  to  the  creation  of  the  first,  and 


*  Wiseman’s  Lectures  on  the  Connection  of  Science  and  Revealed  Religion,  1 — 297. 
t  Commentary  on  Gen.  1 :  2. 

228 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


13 


that  the  six  days’  work  in  like  manner  followed  that  instanta¬ 
neously,  or  at  least  after  a  very  brief  interval,  because  the  records 
of  these  cycles  are  connected  by  the  word  and,  which  they  think, 
precludes  the  idea  of  any  lengthened  periods  or  intervals.  But 
the  slightest  reflection  upon  the  meaning  of  the  word  will  show 
that  and  cannot  of  itself  be  any  measure  of  time,  its  use  being  to 
indicate  merely  sequence  and  connection.  When  used  historically, 
it  always  implies  an  interval  of  time  ;  for  there  can  be  no  succession 
without  an  interval ;  but  the  length  of  that  interval  must  be  deter¬ 
mined  from  the  context,  or  some  other  source.  A  very  cursory 
perusal  of  the  Bible,  either  in  English  or  Hebrew,  will  show  that 
very  often  in  its  brief  narratives,  the  interval  indicated  by  and,  and 
its  Hebrew  originals,  is  a  very  long  time.  The  descent  of  Jacob  and 
his  children  into  Egypt  is  connected  with  the  record  of  their 
deaths,  in  the  very  next  verse,  by  this  word  and,  which  thus  in¬ 
cludes  nearly  the  lifetime  of  a  generation.  That  event,  again,  is 
connected  with  a  change  of  dynasty  in  Egypt,  and  the  oppression 
and  multiplication  of  the  Israelites  there,  recorded  in  the  next 
verse,  by  the  same  word,  vai,  and ;  while  the  period  over  which  it 
reaches  was  over  two  hundred  years.*  So  in  the  brief  record  of 
the  family  of  Adam,  after  reciting  the  birth  of  Seth,  the  historian 
adds,  in  the  next  verse,  “  And  to  Seth  also  was  born  a  son,  and  he 
called  his  name  Enos while  the  interval  thus  indicated  by  the 
word  and  was  a  hundred  and  five  years.  The  command  to  build 
the  ark,  recorded  in  the  last  verse  of  the  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis, 
is  connected  with  the  command  to  enter  into  it,  in  the  first  verse  of 
the  seventh  chapter,  by  this  same  word  and,  although  we  know, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  the  interval  required  for  the  con¬ 
struction  of  such  a  huge  vessel  must  have  been  considerable;  and 
from  the  third  verse  of  the  sixth  chapter,  we  learn  that  it  was  a 
hundred  and  twenty  years.  So  the  births  and  deaths  of  the  ante¬ 
diluvians  are  connected  by  this  same  word,  and,  throughout  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Genesis ;  while  the  interval,  as  we  see  from  the  nar¬ 
rative,  was  often  eight  or  nine  hundred  years.  The  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  Christ,  to  qualify  him  for  judging  the  world,  is 
connected  with  the  actual  discharge  of  that  office,  in  the  destruction 
of  Antichrist  by  the  breath  of  his  mouth,  by  this  word  and, f 
although  the  interval  has  been  over  eighteen  hundred  years.  If 


*  Exo.  1 :  5,  8. 


t  Isa.  11 :  3,  4. 


229 


14 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


in  the  records  of  the  generations  of  mortal  men,  the  word  and  is 
customarily  employed  as  a  connecting  link  in  the  narrations  of 
events  separated  by  an  interval  of  hundreds  of  years,  it  is  quite 
consistent  with  the  strictest  propriety  of  language  to  employ  it, 
with  an  enlargement  proportioned  to  the  duration  of  the  subject  of 
discourse,  to  connect  intervals  of  millions,  in  the  narrative  of  the 
generations  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 

The  Bible  uniformly  attributes  the  most  remote  antiquity  to  the 
work  of  creation.  So  far  from  supposing  man  to  be  even  approxi¬ 
mately  coeval  with  it,  the  emphatic  reproof  of  human  presumption 
is  couched  in  the  remarkable  words,  “  Where  wast  thou,  when  I 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ?”  In  majestic  contrast  with  the 
frail  human  race,  Moses  glances  at  the  primeval  monuments  of 
God’s  antiquity,  as  though  by  them  he  could  form  some  faint  con¬ 
ceptions  even  of  eternity,  and  sings,  “Before  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the  uni¬ 
verse,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  thou  art  God.”  * 

The  very  word  here  used,  the  beginning ,  is  in  itself  an  emphatic 
refutation  of  the  notion  that  the  work  of  creation  is  only  some  six 
or  seven  thousand  years  old.  Geologists  have  been  unable  to 
invent  a  better,  and  have  borrowed  from  the  Bible  this  very  form 
of  speech,  to  designate  those  strata  beyond  which  human  know¬ 
ledge  cannot  penetrate — the  'primary  formations.  But,  with  far 
greater  propriety,  the  Holy  Spirit  uses  this  word  with  regard  to 
ages,  compared  with  which  the  utmost  range  of  the  astronomer’s  or 
geologist’s  reasonings  is  but  as  the  tale  of  yesterday.  For  this 
word,  in  Bible  usage,  marks  the  last  promontory  on  the  boundless 
ocean  of  eternity :  the  only  positive  word  by  which  we  can  express 
the  most  remote  period  of  past  duration.  It  is  not  a  date — a  point 
of  duration.  It  is  a  period — a  vast  cycle.  It  has  but  one  boun¬ 
dary  :  that  where  creation  rises  from  its  abyss.  Created  eye  has 
never  seen  the  other  shore.  It  is  that  vast  period  which  the  Bible 
assigns  to  the  manifestations  of  the  Word  of  God,  “whose  goings 
forth  have  been  of  old,  from  everlasting.”  Carrying  our  astonished 
gaze  far  back  beyond  the  era  of  his  creature,  man,  and  ages  before 
the  “all  things”  that  were  made  by  him,  the  Bible  places  this  be¬ 
ginning  on  the  very  shore  of  the  eternity  of  God,  when  it  declares, 
“  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and 


230 


*  Psalm  90. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


15 


tlie  Word  was  God.”  *  Thus,  both  by  the  use  of  the  imperfect 
tense,  was,  denoting  continued  existence,  and  by  the  connection  of 
this  beginning  with  the  eternity  of  the  Word,  does  the  Bible  teach 
us  to  dismiss  from  our  thoughts  all  narrow  views  of  the  pe¬ 
riod  of  duration  employed  in  manifesting  the  glory  of  the  self- 
existent  Eternal  One,  and  to  raise  our  conceptions  to  the  highest 
possible  pitch,  and  then  feel  that  far  beyond  the  grasp  of  human 
calculation  lies  that  beginning,  which  includes  the  years  of  the 
right  hand  of  the  Most  High,  and  is  even  used  as  one  of  the  names 
of  the  eternal:  “I  am  the  Beginning  and  the  Ending,  saith  the 
Lord,  Who  is,  and  Who  was ,  and  Who  is  to  come — The  Almighty.”! 

In  another  Bible  exhibition  of  the  eternity  of  the  Son  of  God,  we 
are  conducted  from  that  beginning,  downward,  stage  by  stage,  from 
those  periods  of  remote  antiquity  prior  to  the  formation  of  water, 
the  upheaval  of  the  mountains,  the  alluvial  deposits,  the  subsidence 
of  the  existing  sea  basins,  and  the  adornment  of  the  habitable  parts 
of  the  earth,  to  that  comparatively  recent  event,  the  existence  of  the 
sons  of  men.  Our  ideas  of  the  eternity  of  the  love  of  Christ  are 
thus  enhanced,  by  the  vastness  of  the  ages  which  stretch  out  be¬ 
tween  the  human  race  and  that  beginning  when  he  was,  as  it  were, 
“  The  Lamb  slain  from  before  the  foundations  of  the  world.” 

“The  Lord  possessed  me  in  the  beginning  of  his  way, 

“  Before  his  ivories  of  old. 

“  I  was  set  up  from  everlasting, 

“  From  the  beginning,  or  ever  the  earth  was. 

“  When  there  were  no  depths,  I  was  brought  forth  ; 

“  When  there  were  no  fountains,  abounding  with  water ; 

“  Before  the  mountains  were  settled, 

“  Before  the  hills,  was  I  brought  forth  ; 

“While  as  yet  he  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the  fields, 

“  Nor  the  highest  part  of  the  dust  of  the  world. 

“When  he  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there ; 

“When  he  described  a  circle  upon  the  face  of  the  deep ; 

“  When  he  established  the  clouds  above  ; 

“When  he  strengthened  the  fountains  of  the  deep ; 

“When  he  gave  to  the  sea  his  decree, 

“  That  the  waters  should  not  pass  his  commandment ; 

“When  he  appointed  the  foundations  of  the  earth: 


*  John,  1 :  1. 


f  Iler.  1 :  4. 


231 


16 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


“  Then  was  I  by  him,  as  one  brought  up  with  him  ; 

“  And  I  was  daily  his  delight,  rejoicing  ahvays  before  him : 

“Rejoicing  in  the  habitable  parts  of  his  earth  ; 

“  And  my  delights  were  with  the  sons  of  men.*  ” 

Let  the  geologist,  then,  penetrate  as  deeply  as  he  can  into  the 
profundities  of  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  bring  forth  the 
monuments  of  their  hoary  antiquity :  we  will  follow  with  the  most 
unfaltering  faith,  and  receive  with  joy  these  proofs  of  his  eternal 
power  and  Godhead.  Let  the  astronomer  raise  his  telescope,  and 
reflect  on  our  astonished  eyes  the  light  which  flashed  from  morning 
stars,  on  the  day  of  this  earth’s  first  existence,  or  even  the  rays 
which  began  to  travel  from  distant  suns,  millions  of  years  ere  the 
first  morning  dawned  on  our  planet :  we  will  place  them  as  jewels  in 
the  crown  of  Him  who  is  the  bright  and  morning  star.  They  shall 
shed  a  sacred  luster  over  the  pages  of  the  Bible,  and  give  new 
beauties  of  illustration  to  its  majestic  symbols.  But  never  will 
geologist  penetrate,  much  less  exhaust,  the  profundity  of  its  mys¬ 
teries,  nor  astronomer  attain,  much  less  explore,  the  sublimity  of 
that  beginning  revealed  in  its  pages  ;  for  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  nor  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive,  either 
the  antiquity,  or  the  nature,  or  the  duration  of  the  things  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him.  Human  science  will 
never  be  able  to  reach  the  Bible  era  of  creation.  It  is  placed  in 
an  antiquity  beyond  the  power  of  human  .calculation,  in  that  sub¬ 
lime  sentence  with  which  it.  introduces  mortals  to  the  Eternal : 
the  beginning,  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.” 

3.  The  third  objection  we  have  named  is  equally  unfounded. 
The  Bible  no-where  teaches  that  the  sky  is  a  solid  sphere,  to  which 
the  stars  are  fixed,  and  which  revolves  with  them  around  the  earth. 
I  know  that  infidels  allege  that  the  word  firmament,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  conveys  this  meaning.  It  does  not.  Neither 
the  English  word,  nor  the  Hebrew  original,  has  any  such  meaning. 
As  to  the  meaning  of  the  English  word,  I  adhere  to  the  dictionary. 
Infidels  must  not  be  allowed  to  coin  uncouth  meanings  for  words, 
different  from  the  known  usage  of  the  English  tongue,  for  which 
Webster  is  undeniable  authority.  His  definition  of  firmament  is, 
“  The  region  of  the  air ;  the  sky,  or  heavens.  In  scripture,  the 
word  denotes  an  expanse — a  wide  extent ;  for  such  is  the  significa- 


*  Proverbs,  8  :  22. 


I 


17 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE.1 

tion  of  the  Hebrew  word,  coinciding  with  regio,  region ,  and  reach. 
The  original,  therefore,  does  not  convey  the  sense  of  solidity,  but 
of  stretching — extension.  The  great  arch  or  expanse  over  our 
heads,  in  which  are  placed  the  atmosphere  and  the  clouds,  and  in 
which  the  stars  appear  to  be  placed,  and  are  really  seen.”  The 
word  firmament,  then,  conveys  no  such  meaning  as  the  infidel 
alleges,  to  any  man  who  understands  the  English  tongue. 

No  Hebrew  speaking  man  or  woman  ever  did,  or  ever  could  un¬ 
derstand  the  original  Hebrew  word  regio  in  any  other  sense  than 
that  of  expanse;  for  the  verb  from  which  it  is  formed  means  to 
extend,  or  spread  out,  as  even  the  English  reader  may  see,  by  a 
few  examples  of  its  use,  in  the  following  passages  of  scripture ; 
where  the  English  words  by  which  the  verb  reqo  is  expressed,  are 
marked  in  italics.  “  Then  did  I  beat  them  small  as  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  and  did  stamp  them  as  the  mire  of  the  street,  and  did  spread 
them  abroad”  “  The  goldsmith  spreadeth  it  over  with  gold.” 
“  Thus  saith  the  Lord :  He  that  created  the  heavens,  and  stretched 
them  out;  He  that  spread  forth  the  earth.”  “I  am  the  Lord,  that 
maketh  all  things ;  that  stretcheth  forth  the  heavens  alone,  and 
spreadeth  abroad  the  earth  by  myself.”  “  To  him  that  stretcheth 
out  the  earth  above  the  waters.”  “  The  censers  of  these  sinners 
against  their  own  souls,  let  them  make  them  broad  plates,  for  a 
covering  for  the  altar.  And  they  were  made  broad”  “  Hast  thou 
with  him  spread  out  the  sky *  or,  in  Humboldt's  elegant  render¬ 
ing,  “  the  pure  ether,  spread  (during  the  scorching  heat  of  the 
south  wind)  as  a  melted  mirror  over  the  parched  desert.”  f  We 
might  refer  to  the  opinions  of  lexicographers,  all  unanimous  in  as¬ 
cribing  the  same  idea  to  the  word  ;  but  the  authorities  given  above 
are  conclusive.  The  meaning,  then,  of  the  Hebrew  word  rendered 
firmament,  is  so  utterly  removed  from  the  notion  of  compactness, 
or  solidity,  or  metallic  or  crystalline  spheres,  that  it  is  derived  from 
the  very  opposite :  the  fineness  or  tenuity  produced  by  processes  of 
expansion-.  Science  has  not  been  able  to  this  day  to  invent  a  better 
word  for  the  regions  of  space  than  the  literal  rendering  of  the 
original  Hebrew  word  used  by  Moses — the  expanse. 

The  inspired  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  though  they  found 
the  world  full  of  all  the  absurdities  of  the  Greek  philosophy,  and 

*  2  Sam.  22  :  43.  Isa.  40 :  19  ;  44 :  24;  42 :  5  ;  Fs.  136 :  6.  Numbers,  17 :  38.  Job, 
37 :  18. 

+  Cosmos,  v.  2,  p.  60. 


233 


18 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE.' 


their  Greek  translations  of  the  Bible  continually  using  the  word 
stereoma,  which  expressed  these  notions,  never  used  it  but  once,  and 
then  not  for  the  sky,  but  for  the  steadfastness  of  faith  in  Christ. 
Their  thus  using  it  once,  shows  that  they  were  acquainted  with 
the  word,  and  its  proper  meaning,  and  that  their  disuse  of  it  was 
intentional ;  while  their  disuse  of  it,  and  choice  of  another  word  to 
denote  the  heavens,  proves  decisively  that  they  disapproved  of  the 
absurdity  which  it  was  understood  to  express.  Now,  whether  you 
account  for  this  fact  by  admitting  their  inspiration,  or  by  alleging 
that  they  drew  their  language  from  the  Hebrew  original,  and  not 
from  the  Greek  translation,  it  is  in  either  case  perfectly  conclusive 
as  to  the  scriptural  meaning  of  the  word.  Indeed,  it  is  marvellous 
how  any  man  who  is  familiar  with  his  Bible,  and  knows  that  the 
scriptures  usually  describe  the  sky  by  metaphors  conveying  the 
very  opposite  ideas  to  those  of  solidity  or  permanence  —  as, 
“  stretched  out  like  a  curtain, ”  “  spread  abroad  like  a  tent  to 
dwell  in,”  “  folded  up  like  a  vesture,”  and  the  like — should  allow 
himself  to  be  imposed  on  by  the  impudent  falsehood  of  Voltaire, 
that  the  Bible  teaches  us  that  the  sky  is  a  solid  metallic  or  crystal 
hemisphere,  supported  by  pillars. 

Those  beautiful  figures  of  sacred  poetry  in  which  the  universe  is 
represented  as  the  palace  of  the  Great  King,  adorned  with  majestic 
“  pillars,”  and  “  windows  of  heaven,”  whence  he  scatters  his 
gifts  among  his  expectant  subjects  in  the  courts  below,  have  been 
grossly  abused  for  the  support  of  this  miserable  falsehood.  We 
are  assured,  that  so  ignorant  was  Moses  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  of  the  origin  of  rain,  that  he  believed  and  taught 
that  there  was  an  ocean  of  fresh  water  on  the  outside  of  this  metal 
hemisphere,  which  covered  the  earth  like  a  great  sugar-kettle,  bot¬ 
tom  upwards,  and  was  supported  on  pillars  ;  and  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ocean  were  trap-doors,  to  let  the  rain  through ;  which  trap¬ 
doors  in  the  metal  firmament  are  to  be  understood,  when  the  Bible 
speaks  of  the  windows  of  heaven.  Now,  the  bottom  of  an  ocean  is 
an  odd  place  for  windows,  and  a  trap-door  is  rather  a  strange  kind 
of  watering-pot;  and  if  Moses  put  the  ocean  of  fresh  water  on  the 
outside  of  his  metal  hemisphere,  he  must  have  changed  his  notions 
of  gravity  materially  from  the  time  he  planned  the  brazen  hemi¬ 
sphere  for  the  tabernacle,  which  he  turned  mouth  upwards,  and 
put  the  water  in  the  inside. 

While  such  writers  are  quite  clear  about  the  metal  trap-doors 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE.1 


19 


and  the  ocean,  they  have  not  yet  fully  fathomed  the  construction 
and  arrangement  of  the  pillars.  Whether  the  Bible  teaches  that 
they  are  “pillars  of  salt,”  like  Lot’s  wife,  or  of  flesh  and  blood, 
like  “James,  Cephas,  and  John,”  or  such  “iron  pillars  and  brazen 
walls”  as  Jeremiah  was  against  the  house  of  Israel — whether  they 
consisted  of  “  cloud  and  fire,”  like  the  pillar  Moses  describes  in 
the  next  book  as  floating  in  the  sky  over  the  camp  of  Israel,  or  are 
“  pillars  of  smoke,”  such  as  ascend  out  of  the  wilderness — whether 
they  are  those  “pillars  of  the  earth  which  tremble”  when  God 
shakes  it,  or  “  the  pillars  of  heaven  which  are  astonished  at  his 
reproof” — whether  they  are  the  pillars  of  the  earth  and  its  anar¬ 
chical  inhabitants,  which  Asaph  bore  up,  or  are  composed  of  the 
same  materials  as  Paul’s  “  pillar  and  basis  of  the  truth,”  or  the 
pillars  of  victory  which  Christ  erects  “in  the  temple  of  God”* — ■ 
they  have  not  yet  decided.  Whether  the  Hebrews  understood 
these  pillars  to  be  arranged  on  the  outside  of  the  metal  hemisphere, 
and  if  so,  to  imagine  any  use  for  them  there;  or  in  the  inside,  and 
in  that  case  whether  they  kept  the  sky  from  falling  upon  the 
earth,  or  only  supported  the  earth  from  falling  into  the  sky,  these 
learned  men  are  by  no  means  agreed.  Having  trampled  the  pearl 
into  fragments,  their  attempts  to  combine  them  into  another 
shape  are  more  amusing  than  successful ;  and  it  is  hard  to  say 
which  of  the  seven  opinions  ascribed  to  the  Bible  by  infidel  com¬ 
mentators  is  least  probable.  That  opinion,  however,  will,  doubt¬ 
less,  after  more  vigorous  and  protracted  rooting,  be  discovered  and 
greedily  swallowed  amid  grunts  of  satisfaction:  an  appropriate  re¬ 
ward  of  such  laborious  stupidity. 

The  absurdities  of  the  Greek  philosophers  were  not  drawn  from 
the  Bible.  Had  the  Greeks  read  the  Bible  more,  they  would  have 
preserved  the  common  sense  God  gave  them  a  great  deal  longer, 
and  would  not,  while  professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  have  become 
such  fools  as  to  adore  blocks  and  stones,  and  dream  of  metal  firma¬ 
ments.  But  they  turned  away  their  ears  from  the  truth,  and  were 
turned  unto  such  fables  as  infidels  falsely  ascribe  to  the  Bible.  A 
thousand  years  before  the  cycles  and  epicycles  of  the  Ptolemaic 
astronomy  were  invented,  and  before  learned  Greeks  had  learned 
to  talk  nonsense  about  crystal  spheres,  and  trap-doors  in  the  bottom 


*  Gen.  19  :  2G.  Exo.  13  :  20 ;  33  :  10.  Jere.  1 :  18.  Gal.  2  :  7.  Song,  3  :  6.  Jot>, 
9 :  6 ;  26  :  11.  Ps.  75  :  3.  1  Tim.  3  :  15.  Eev.  3  :  12. 


235 


20 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


of  celestial  oceans,  the  writers  of  the  Bible  were  recording  those 
conversations  of  pious  philosophers  concerning  stars,  and  clouds, 
and  rain,  from  which  Galileo  derived  the  first  hints  of  the  causes 
of  barometrical  phenomena.  The  origin  of  ram,  its  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  evaporation,  and  the  mode  of  its  distribution  by  con¬ 
densation,  could  not  be  propounded  by  Humboldt  himself  with 
more  brevity  and  perspicuity  than  they  are  expressed  by  the  Idu- 
mean  philosoper  :  “  He  malceth  small  the  drops  of  water  ;  they  pour 
down  rain  according  to  the  vapor  thereof,  which  the  clouds  do  drop, 
and  distil  upon  man  abundantly.  Also,  can  any  understand  the 
spreadings  of  the  clouds,  or  the  noise  of  his  tabernacles.”*  The 
cause  of  this  rarefaction  of  cold  water — the  clouds  are  not  steam — 
is  as  mucli  a  mystery  to  the  British  Association  as  it  was  to  Elihu  ; 
and  even  were  all  the  mysteries  of  the  electrical  tension  of  vapors 
disclosed,  “the  balancings  of  the  clouds”  would  only  be  more 
clearly  discovered  to  be,  as  the  Bible  declares,  “the  wonderful 
works  of  Him  who  is  perfect  in  wisdom.”  But  the  gravity  of  the 
atmosphere,  the  comparitive  density  of  floating  water,  and  its  in¬ 
creased  density  by  discharges  of  electricity,  were  as  well  known  to 
Job  and  his  friends  as  they  are  to  the  wisest  of  our  modern  philo¬ 
sophers.  “He  looketh  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  seeth  under 
the  whole  heaven,  to  make  weight  to  air,  and  regulate  waters  by 
measure ,  in  his  making  a  law  for  the  rain,  and  a  path  for  the  light¬ 
ning  of  thunder.”  f  Three  thousand  years  before  the  theory  of  the 
trade  winds  was  demonstrated,  or  before  Maury  had  discovered  the 
rotation  and  revolutions  of  the  wind-currents,  it  was  written  in  the 
Bible,  “The  wind  goetli  towards  the  south,  and  turneth  about  to  the 
north.  And  the  wind  returneth  again ,  according  to  his  circuits”  J 
Thousands  of  years  before  Newton,  Galileo,  and  Copernicus  were 
born,  Isaiah  was  writing  about  the  “  orbit  of  the  earth,”  and  its 
insignificance  in  the  eyes  of  the  Creator  of  the  host  of  heaven.  $ 
Job  was  conversing  with  his  friends,  on  the  inclination  of  its  axis, 
and  its  equilibrium  in  space :  “  He  spreadeth  out  the  north  over 
the  empty  space,  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing.”  || 

The  “  waters  above  the  heavens,”  which  the  Holy  Ghost  harmo¬ 
nizes  with  other  Cosmical  bodies — Sun,  Moon,  Fixed  Stars,  and 


*  Job,  36 :  27. 

f  Job,  28 :  24 — literal  reading. 
1  Eccl.  1 :  6. 


g  Isa.  40th  ch. 
||  Job,  26  :  7. 


236 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


21 


distant  Galaxies,  Heavens  of  Heavens — in  his  arrangement  of  cho¬ 
risters  for  the  grand  anthem  of  the  universe,  have  no  reference  to, 
or  connection  with  our  earth.  They  refer  to  such  phenomena  as 
are  indicated  by  the  atmosphere  loaded  with  vapors  of  Mercury 
and  Venus,  the  “polar  snows’7  and  “greenish  seas”  of  Mars,  the 
trade  winds  of  Jupiter,  and  the  rings  of  Saturn,  “composed  of  a 
fluid  a  little  denser  than  water,”  in  our  own  system,  and  to  analo¬ 
gous  collections  of  water  in  more  distant  firmaments,* 

So  far  from  entertaining  the  least  idea  of  the  waters  of  the  at¬ 
mosphere  being  contained  either  on  the  outside  or  the  inside  of  a 
metal  or  solid  hemisphere,  the  writers  of  the  Bible  never  once  use, 
even  figuratively,  any  expression  conveying  it.  On  the  contrary, 
the  well  known  scriptural  figures  for  the  fountains  of  the  rain,  are 
the  soft,  elastic,  leathern  waterskins  of  the  east,  “the  bottles  of 
the  clouds,”  or  the  wide,  flowing  shawl  or  upper  garment  wherein 
the  people  of  the  east  are  accustomed  to  tie  up  loose,  scattering 
substances.f  “  He  bindeth  up  the  waters  in  his  thick  cloud,  and 
the  cloud  is  not  rent  under  them.”  “Who  hath  bound  the  waters 
in  a  garment;”  “As  a  vesture  thou  shalt  change  them;”  or  the 
loose,  flowing  curtains  of  a  royal  pavilion;  or  the  extended  covering 
of  a  tent :  “  his  pavilion  around  him  were  dark  waters,  and  thick 
clouds  of  the  skies;”  “the  spreadings  of  the  clouds,  and  the  noise 
of  his  tabernacles  ;”  “  he  spread  a  cloud  for  a  covering.”  £  Instead 
,  of  the  notion  of  a  single  ocean,  the  “  number  of  the  clouds”  is  pro¬ 
verbial  in  the  scriptures  ||  for  a  multitude ;  and  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  permanence  of  a  vast  metallic  arch,  the  chosen  emblems  of 
instability  and  transitoriness,  and  of  the  utmost  rapidity  of  motion, 
suitable  even  for  the  chariot  of  Jehovah,  are  selected  from  the 
heavens. $ 

In  short,  there  is  not  the  slightest  vestige  of  any  foundation  in 
scripture  for  the  notions  long  afterwards  introduced  by  the  Greek 
philosophers.  Yet  Christians,  who  have  read  these  passages  of 
scripture  over  and  over  again,  allow  themselves  to  give  heed  to  infi¬ 
dels,  who  have  not,  asserting,  without  the  shadow  of  proof,  that 


*  Psalm  148.  Ilersehell’s  Outlines,  $509,  510,  512.  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery, 
1S42,  p.  370. 
f  Ruth,  3  :  15. 

j  Job,  38  :  37 ;  26  :  8  ;  38  :  9  ;  36  :  29.  Ps.  105  :  39  ;  77  ;  17. 

||  Isa.,  44  :  22.  Jere.,  4 :  13.  Job,  38  :  37.  Prov.,  30  :  4. 

\  Eccl.,  11 :  4.  Ps.  104  :  3.  Mat.  24  :  30. 


237 


22 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


Moses  taught  absurdities  which  were  not  invented  for  a  thousand 
years  after  his  death.  The  Bible  gives  hints  of  many  profound 
scientific  truths ;  it  teaches  no  absurdities ;  and ,  instead  of  coun¬ 
tenancing  the  notion  that  the  shy  is  a  solid  metal  hemisphere ,  it 
teaches ,  both  literally  and  figuratively ,  directly  the  contrary. 

4.  W e  come  now  to  the  fourth  objection,  that  the  Bible  repre¬ 
sents  God  as  creating  light  before  the  Sun,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
an  absurdity,  and  as  creating  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars  only  two 
days  before  Adam.  This  is  the  only  Astronomical  objection  to  the 
Bible  account  of  creation  which  has  any  foundation  of  scripture 
statement  to  rest  upon  ;  but  we  shall  soon  see  that  here,  also,  infi¬ 
dels  have  not  done  themselves  the  justice  of  reading  the  Bible  with 
attention. 

I  have  already  corrected  that  confusion  of  ideas  and  carelessness 
of  perusal  which  confounds  the  two  distinct  and  different  words, 
create  and  make,  so  as  to  make  both  mean  the  same  thing.  God 
created  the  heavens,  as  well  as  the  earth,  in  the  beginning :  a  period 
of  such  remote  antiquity  that,  in  Bible  language,  it  stands  next  to 
eternity.  The  Sun  and  Moon  then  came  into  being.  Through 
what  changes  they  passed,  or  when  they  were  endowed  with  the 
power  of  giving  light  to  the  universe,  the  Bible  no-where  declares  ; 
but  on  the  fourth  day,  it  tells  us,  they  were  made  lights,  or,  literal¬ 
ly,  light-bearers,  to  this  earth.  The  comparatively  insignificant 
place  allotted  to  the  stars,  in  the  narrative  of  this  earth's  formation, 
corresponds,  with  the  strictest  propriety,  to  the  nature  of  the  dis¬ 
course  ;  which  is  not  an  account  of  the  system  of  the  universe,  but 
of  the  process  of  preparation  of  this  earth  for  the  abode  of  man. 
Compared  with  the  influences  of  “the  two  great  light-bearers," 
those  of  the  stars  are  very  insignificant;  since  the  Sun  sheds  more 
light  and  heat  on  the  earth  in  one  day,  than  all  the  fixed  stars 
have  done  since  the  creation  of  Adam.  It  is  evident,  from  the 
words,  that  Moses  is  not  speaking  either  of  their  original  crea¬ 
tion,  or  of  their  actual  magnitude,  but  of  their  appointment  and 
use  in  relation  to  us,  when  he  says,  “And  God  made  two  great 
light-bearers  (the  greater  light-bearer  to  rule  the  day,  and  the 
lesser  light-bearer  to  rule  the  night),  and  the  stars.  And  God  set 
them  in  the  firmament  of  the  heavens,  to  give  light  upon  the  earth, 
and  to  rule  over  the  day  and  the  night,  and  to  divide  the  light 
from  the  darkness." 

Neither  here  nor  elsewhere  does  he  say  they  were  created  at  this 
238 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


23 


time,  but  in  all  the  subsequent  references  uses  other  words,  such, 
as  “prepared,”  “divided,”  “made,”  “appropriated,”  “made  for 
ruling,”  “gave:”  a  studious  omission,  which  shows  that  the  author 
of  the  Bible  had  not  forgotten  how  long  it  was  since  he  had  called 
them  into  being.  The  Bible ,  then,  does  not  say  that  God  created 
the  Sun  and  Stars  only  two  days  before  Adam. 

Another  correction  of  careless  Bible  reading  is  necessary,  that 
we  may  be  satisfied  about  what  the  Bible  does  not  say,  ere  we  begin 
to  defend  what  it  does  say.  The  Bible  does  not  say,  nor  lead  us 
to  believe,  that  the  darkness  spoken  of  in  the  second  verse  of  the 
first  of  Genesis  had  existed  from  eternity.  Darkness  is  not  eternal: 
it  requires  the  exercise  of  creative  power  for  its  production  ;  but 
light  is  the  eternal  dwelling  of  the  Word  of  God.*  The  darkness 
which  brooded  over  our  earth,  at  the  period  of  its  formation,  is  very 
plainly  described  in  the  Bible  as  a  temporary  phenomenon,  inci¬ 
dent  to  and  necessary  for  the  birth  of  ocean.  It  is  confined  by  the 
adverb  of  time,  when,  to  the  period  ojf  condensation,  upheaval,  and 
subsidence,  occupied  by  the  birth  of  that  gigantic  infant,  “  when 
it  burst  forth  as  though  it  had  issued  from  the  womb ;  when  I  made 
the  cloud  a  garment  for  it,  and  thick  darkness  a  swaddling  band 
for  it,  and  broke  up  for  it  my  decreed  place,  and  set  bars  and 
doors.”  f  The  Sun  may  have  shone  for  millions  of  years  before 
upon  the  earth,  or  might  have  been  shining  with  all  his  brilliance 
at  that  very  time,  while  not  a  single  ray  penetrated  the  thick  dark¬ 
ness  of  the  vapors  in  which  earth  was  clothed.  But  whether  or 
not,  darkness  must,  from  its  very  nature,  be  limited,  both  in  space 
and  time.  To  speak  of  infinite  and  eternal  darkness  is  as  unserip- 
tural  as  it  is  absurd.  The  source  of  light  is  Uncreated  and  Eternal.  J 

Further — if  my  readers  are  not  tired  with  these  perpetual  cor¬ 
rections  of  careless  reading  and  mistaken  meaning — the  light  called 
into  existence  in  the  third  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  as 
evidently  a  different  word  from  the  two  lights  spoken  of  in  the 
fourteenth  verse,  as  the  singular  is  different  from  the  plural ;  and 
the  thing  signified  by  it  is  as  distinct  from  the  things  spoken  of  in 
the  fourteenth  verse,  as  the  abstract  is  from  the  concrete :  as,  when 
I  say  of  the  first,  “light  travels  195,000  miles  per  second,”  but 


*  Isa.  45  :  7.  1  John,  1 :  5,  Dan.  2 :  22.  1  Tim.  G :  1G. 
f  Job,  38  :  9,  10.  Literally,  In  my  making,  &c. 

J  Rev.  21 :  23  ;  22  :  5.  Isa.  GO :  19. 


239 


24 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


mean  a  totally  distinct  subject  when  I  say,  “  Extinguish  the 
lights.”  The  Hebrew  words  are  even  more  palpably  different,  the 
word  for  light ,  in  the  third  verse,  being  anr,  while  the  words  for 
the  lights,  in  the  fourth  days'  work,  are  maurt  and  at  emaur:  words 
as  distinct  in  shape  and  sense  as  our  English  words,  light  and  the 
lighthouses. 

The  locality  of  the  light  of  the  third  verse  is,  moreover,  wholly 
different  from  that  of  the  light-bearers  of  the  fourteenth  verse. 
That  was  placed  on  earth — these  in  heaven.  It  was  of  the  earth 
alone  the  writer  was  speaking,  in  the  second  verse  ;  the  earth  alone 
is  the  subject  of  the  following  verses.  It  was  the  darkness  of  earth 
that  needed  to  be  illuminated  ;  but  there  is  not  the  remotest  hint, 
in  any  portion  of  scripture,  that  any  other  planet  or  star  was 
shrouded  in  gloom  at  this  time.  But,  on  the  contrary,  we  are 
most  distinctly  informed  that  the  wonders  which  God  was  perform¬ 
ing  in  this  world  at  that  very  time  were  distinctly  visible  amidst 
the  cheerful  illumination  of  other  orbs,  “  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,”  *  as  this 
earth  emerged  from  its  temporary  darkness.  It  was  not  from  the 
light  of  heaven,  but  out  of  this  darkness  of  earth,  that  God,  who 
still  draws  the  lightning's  flash  from  the  black  thunder-cloud,  com¬ 
manded  the  light  to  shine.f  And  it  was  upon  this  earth,  and  not 
throughout  the  universe,  that  it  produced  alternate  day  and  night. 
To  extend  this  command  for  the  illumination  of  the  darkened  earth, 
so  as  to  mean  the  production  of  light  in  general,  and  the  lighting 
of  the  most  distant  telescopic,  and  even  invisible  stars — which  are 
neither  specified  in  the  command  itself,  nor  by  any  necessity  of 
language  or  scripture  implied  in  it,  but,  on  the  contrary,  excluded, 
by  the  express  scripture  declarations  of  the  pre-existence  of  light, 
and  of  morning  stars — is  an  outrage  alike  against  all  canons  of 
criticism,  laws  of  grammar,  and  dictates  of  common  sense.  The 
command,  “Let  there  be  light,''  had  respect  to  this  earth  only. 

The  Bible  does  represent  this  earth  as  illuminated  at  a  time 
when  the  Sun  was  not  visible  from  its  surface — perhaps  not  visible 
at  all.  Now,  if  any  one  will  undertake  to  scoff  at  the  Bible  for 
speaking  of  light  without  sunshine,  or  of  the  sun  shining  upon  a 
dark  earth — as  infidels  abundantly  do — we  demand  that  he  tell  us, 


240 


*  Job,  38 :  7. 


f  2  Cor.  -1 :  6. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE.  25 

What  is  light,  and  how  is  it  connected  with  the  Sun  ?  If  he  can 
not,  let  him  cease  to  scoff  at  matters  too  high  for  him. 

If  he  can  tell,  he  knows  that  the  retardation  of  Encke’s  comet, 
which  every  year  falls  nearer  and  nearer  the  Sun,  has  discovered 
the  existence  of  an  attenuated  ether  in  the  expanse  or  firmament ; 
and  that  the  experiments  of  Arago  on  the  polarization  of  light 
have  finally  demonstrated,  that  our  sensation  of  light  is  exerted  by 
a  series  of  vibrations  or  undulations  of  this  fluid.*  He  will  then 
be  able  to  perceive  the  propriety  with  which  the  Author  of  light 
and  of  the  Bible  speaks,  not  of  creating  light,  as  if  it  were  a  material 
substance,  but  of  forming  or  commanding  its  display.  And  he  will 
be  better  able  to  comprehend  the  beauty  and  scientific  propriety 
with  which  he  selected  the  active  participle  of  the  verb  to  flow,  as 
the  name  for  the  undulations  of  this  fluid  ;  for  the  primary  meaning 
of  the  Hebrew  verb  ar  is  to  floiv,  or,  when  used  as  a  noun,  a  flood, 
“It  shall  be  cast  out  and  drowned,  as  by  the  flood  of  Egypt.” f 
And  of  the  like  import  are  the  nouns,  iar  and  aur,  formed  from 
it.  “  Who  is  this  that  covereth  up  like  a  flood — whose  waters  are 
moved  as  the  rivers.”  $  The  philosopher,  even  though  he  be  a 
skeptic,  will  cease  to  mock  the  Bible  when  he  reads  there,  that 
6000  years  ago  its  author  termed  light  the  flowing — the  undula¬ 
tion.  “  In  the  words  of  the  ‘  Son  of  God/  and  ‘  the  Son  of 
Man/  no  less  than  in  his  works,  with  all  their  adaptation  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  times  and  persons  to  whom  they  were  origi¬ 
nally  delivered,  are  things  inexplicable  —  concealed  germs  of  an 
infinite  development,  reserved  for  future  ages  to  unfold.  ||  ”  To  the 
man  of  learning  and  reflection,  this  progressive  fullness  and  un¬ 
fathomable  depth  of  the  Scripture,  is  a  most  conclusive  proof  that 
it  was  dictated  by  him  in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge. 

But  the  ignorant  scoffers — the  great  majority — will  mock  on,  and 
speak  evil  of  the  things  they  know  not.  Their  mockery  is  founded 
on  two  assumptions,  which  the}7  believe  to  be  irrefutable:  that  the 
Sun  is  the  only  possible  source  of  light  to  the  earth ;  and  that  it  is 
impossible  for  the  Sun  to  exist  without  illuminating  the  earth. 
Unless  they  can  prove  both  these  assumptions  to  be  true,  they  can 

*  Somerville’s  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  Sec.  19 — 23. 

•f  Amos,  8  :  8. 

JJere.  46:7.  Gen.  41 : 1 — 18.  See  Par khurst’s  Hebrew  Lexicon,  sub  voce. 

|  Neander. 

16  241 


26 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


not  prove  the  Bible  account  of  creation  to  be  false,  nor  even  show 
it  to  be  impossible.  Neither  of  these  assumptions  can  possibly  be 
proved  true ;  for  none  of  them  can  explore  the  universe,  to  discover 
the  sources  of  light,  nor  put  the  Sun  through  every  possible  experi¬ 
ment,  to  discover  that  his  light  is  an  inseparable  quality.  The 
only  thing  infidels  can  truly  allege  against  the  Bible  account  of 
the  origin  of  light  is,  their  ignorance  of  the  process.  The  argument 
is  simply  this :  “  God  could  not  cause  light  without  sunshine,  be¬ 
cause  I  don't  know  how  he  did  it.  Nor  can  I  understand  how  the 

i 

Sun  shone  on  a  dark  earth ;  therefore,  it  is  impossible.” 

These  arguments  from  ignorance  need  no  other  answer  than  the 
questions,  Do  you  know  how  the  Sun  shines  at  all?  Is  your  igno¬ 
rance  the  measure  of  God’s  wisdom  ? 

But  I  shall  demonstrate  the  utter  falsehood  of  both  these  assump¬ 
tions,  by  showing  the  actual  existence  of  man}'-  sources  of  light 
besides  the  Sun,  and  the  perfect  possibility  of  the  existence  of  the 
Sun  without  sunshine,  and  of  sunshine  without  any  light  reaching 
the  earth.  Thus,  both  the  alleged  impossibilities  upon  which  the 
argument  against  the  truth  of  the  Bible  is  based  will  be  removed, 
and  the  gross  ignorance  of  natural  science  dispkyed  by  professedly 
scientific  scoffers  at  the  Bible,  exposed. 

Light,  so  far  from  being  solely  derived  from  the  Sun,  exists  in, 
and  can  be  educed  from,  almost  any  known  substance.  Even  chil¬ 
dren  are  familiar  with  the  light  produced  by  the  friction  of  two 
pieces  of  quartz  ;  and  no  one  needs  to  be  informed  how  light  may 
be  produced  by  the  combustion  of  inflammable  substances.  But 
the  number  of  these  substances  is  far  greater  than  is  generally  sup¬ 
posed,  and  light  can  be  produced  by  processes  to  which  we  do  not 
generally  apply  the  idea  of  burning.  Resins,  wool,  silks,  wood, 
and  all  kinds  of  earths  and  alkalies,  are  capable  of  emitting  light 
in  suitable  electrical  conditions ;  so  that  the  surface  of  our  earth 
may  have  been  a  source  of  light  in  past  ages,  as  it  even  now  is  * 
near  the  poles  and  the  equator,  flashing  its  Aurora  Borealis  and 
Aurora  Australis,  and  sending  out  its  belts  of  Zodiacal  light  (which 
is  now  ascertained  to  be  a  telluric  phenomenon,  like  Saturn’s  ringf ), 
far  into  the  surrounding  darkness.  Further,  the  metallic  bases 
of  all  the  earths  are  highly  inflammable,  and  a  brilliant  flame  can 
be  produced  by  the  combustion  even  of  water.  All  the  metals  can 


*  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  196, 

242 


f  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery,  1856. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE/ 


27 


be  made  to  flash  forth  lightnings,  under  suitable  electric  and  mag¬ 
netic  excitements,  and  the  crystals  of  several  rocks  give  out  light 
during  the  process  of  crystallization.  Thousands  of  miles  of  the 
earth's  surface  must  once  have  presented  the  lurid  glow  of  a  vast 
furnace  of  melted  granite.  Even  at  a  far  later  era  of  its  history, 
it  may  have  shone  with  a  luster  little  inferior  to  that  of  the  Sun ; 
for  lime — of  which  unknown  thousands  of  miles  of  its  strata  consist 
— when  subjected  to  a  heat  much  less  than  that  produced  by  con¬ 
tact  with  melted  granite  or  lava,  emits  a  brilliant  white  light,  of 
such  intensity  that  the  eye  cannot  support  its  luster.*  Even  now, 
the  copper  color  of  the  moon  during  an  eclipse  shows  us  that  the 
earth  is  a  source  of  light.!  The  mountains  on  the  surface  of  Venus 
and  the  Moon,  and  the  continents  and  oceans  of  Mars,  attest  the 
existence  of  upheaval  and  subsidence,  and  of  volcanic  fires,  capable 
of  producing  such  phenomena,  and  of  course  of  sources  of  light  in 
those  planets,  such  as  exist  on  the  earth.  We  know,  then,  most 
certainly,  that  there  are  many  other  bodies  capable  of  producing 
light  besides  the  Sun.  That  God  could  command  the  light  to  shine 
out  of  darkness,  and  convert  the  very  ocean  into  a  magnificent  illu¬ 
mination,  the  following  facts  clearly  prove.  “  Capt.  Bonnycastle, 
coming  up  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  on  the  7th  of  September,  1826, 
was  roused  by  the  mate  of  the  vessel,  in  great  alarm,  from  an  un¬ 
usual  appearance.  It  was  a  starlight  night,  when  suddenly  the 
sky  became  overcast,  in  the  direction  of  the  high  land  of  Cornwallis 
County,  and  an  instantaneous  and  intensely  vivid  liyht,  resembling 
the  Aurora ,  shot  out  of  the  hitherto  gloomy  and  dark  sea ,  on  the  lee 
bow,  which  was  so  brilliant  that  it  lighted  every  thing  distinctly, 
even  to  the  mast-head.  The  light  spread  over  the  whole  sea,  be¬ 
tween  the  two  shores,  and  the  waves,  which  before  had  been  tran¬ 
quil,  now  began  to  be  agitated.  Captain  Bonnycastle  describes 
the  scene  as  that  of  a  blazing  sheet  of  awful  and  most  brilliant  light. 
A  long  and  vivid  line  of  light,  superior  in  brightness  to  the  parts 
of  the  sea  not  immediately  near  the  vessel,  showed  the  base  of  the 
high,  frowning,  and  dark  land  abreast ;  the  sky  became  lowering, 
and  more  intensely  obscure.  Long  tortuous  lines  of  light  showed 
immense  numbers  of  large  fish,  darting  about  as  if  in  consterna¬ 
tion.  The  topsail  yard  and  mizen  boom  were  lighted  by  the 


*  Johnson’s  Turner’s  Chemistry,  g  160. 
f  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  196.  Nicholl’s  Solar  System,  184. 


243 


28 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


glare,  as  if  gas-lights  had  been  burning  directly  below  them  ;  and 
until  just  before  day-break,  at  four  o’clock,  the  most  minute  objects 
were  distinctly  visible.”  * 

The  other  assumption,  that  the  Sun  could  not  possibly  have  ex¬ 
isted  without  giving  light  to  the  earth,  is  contradicted  by  the  most 
familiar  facts.  The  earth  and  each  of  the  planets  might  have 
been,  and  most  probably  were,  surrounded  by  a  dense  atmosphere, 
through  which  the  Sun’s  rays  could  not  penetrate.  It  is  not  at  all 
necessary  to  prove  that  such  was  the  fact.  I  am  only  concerned  to 
prove  the  possibility ;  for  the  infidel’s  objection  is  founded  on  the 
presumed  impossibility  of  the  co-existence  of  a  dark  earth  and  a 
shining  sun.  Any  person  who  has  ever  been  in  Pittsburg,  Glasgow, 
or  the  manufacturing  districts  of  England,  and  has  seen  how  the 
smoke  of  even  a  hundred  factory  chimneys  will  shroud  the  heavens, 
can  easily  comprehend  how  a  similar  discharge,  on  a  larger  scale, 
from  the  thousands  of  primal  volcanoes,!  would  cover  the  earth 
with  the  pall  of  darkness.  By  the  eruption  of  a  single  volcano, 
in  the  island  of  Sumbawa,  in  1815,  the  air  was  filled  with  ashes, 
from  Java  to  Celebes,  darkening  an  area  of  more  than  200,000 
square  miles ;  and  the  darkness  was  so  profound  in  Java,  three 
hundred  miles  distant  from  the  volcano,  that  nothing  equal  to  it 
was  ever  witnessed  in  the  darkest  night.!  Those  who  have  wit¬ 
nessed  the  fogs  raised  on  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland,  in  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence,  and  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  by  the  mingling  of  cur¬ 
rents  of  water  of  slightly  different  temperatures,  can  be  at  no  loss 
to  conceive  the  density  of  the  vapors  produced  by  the  boiling  of  the 
sea  around  and  over  the  multitude  of  volcanoes  ||  which  have  pro¬ 
duced  the  countless  atolls  of  the  Pacific,  and  by  the  vast  upheavals 
of  thousands  of  miles  of  heated  rocks  of  the  primary  formations 
into  the  beds  of  primeval  oceans.  While  such  processes  were  in 
progress,  it  was  impossible  but  that  darkness  should  be  upon  the 
face  of  the  deep.g  Even  now,  a  slight  change  of  atmospheric  den¬ 
sity  and  temperature  would  vail  the  earth  with  darkness.  We  see 
this  substantially  done  every  time  that  God  “  covereth  the  light 
with  clouds,  and  commandeth  it  not  to  shine  by  the  cloud  that 
cometh  betwixt,”  although  the  Sun  continues  to  shine  with  all  his 


*  Connection  of  Physical  Sciences,  288.  ||  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  250. 

t  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  250.  g  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  pp.  198,  216. 

J  Lyell’s  Principles  of  Geology,  465. 

244 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


29 


usual  splendor.  To  understand  how  there  may  he  day  without 
sunshine,  we  need  only  conceive  the  whole  earth  temporarily  en¬ 
veloped  in  the  vapors  of  the  unastronomical  atmosphere  of  Peru, 
thus  described  by  Humboldt : 

“A  thick  mist  obscures  the  firmament  in  this  region  for  many 
months,  during  the  period  called  tiempo  de  la  garua.  Not  a  planet 
—  not  the  most  brilliant  stars  of  the  southern  hemisphere — are 
visible.  It  is  frequently  almost  impossible  to  distinguish  the  po¬ 
sition  of  the  moon.  If,  by  chance,  the  outline  of  the  Sun’s  disc 
be  visible  during  the  day,  it  appears  devoid  of  rays,  as  if  seen 
through  colored  glasses.  According  to  what  modern  geology  has 
taught  us  to  conjecture  concerning  the  ancient  history  of  our  at¬ 
mosphere,  its  primitive  condition  in  respect  to  its  mixture  and  den¬ 
sity  must  have  been  unfavorable  to  the  transmission  of  light.  When 
we  consider  the  numerous  processes  which,  in  the  primary  world, 
may  have  led  to  the  separation  of  the  solids,  fluids,  and  gases 
around  the  earth’s  surface,  the  thought  involuntarily  arises,  how 
narrowly  the  human  race  escaped  being  surrounded  with  an  un¬ 
transparent  atmosphere ,  which,  though  not  greatly  prejudicial  to 
some  classes  of  vegetation,  would  yet  have  completely  vailed  the 
whole  of  the  starry  canopy.  All  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  the 
universe  could  then  have  been  withheld  from  the  enquiring  spirit 
of  man.”  *  The  Sun,  then,  may  have  shone  with  all  his  brilliancy, 
for  thousands  of  years,  and  a  single  ray  never  have  penetrated  the 
darkness  upon  the  face  of  the  deep. 

But  there  is  another  well  ascertained  fact,  which  equally  refutes 
the  infidel’s  assumption.  There  is  no  necessary  connection  between 
the  Sun  and  sunshine.  The  Sun  may  have  existed  for  thousands 
of  years  as  the  center  of  the  solar  system,  and  the  planets  may  have 
revolved  around  him,  as  they  do  noAv,  while  so  far  from  shedding 
a  single  ray  of  light  on  any  of  them,  he  may  have  derived  a  feeble 
illumination  from  their  beams.  Modern  science  has  discovered 
the  astonishing  fact,  that  at  this  moment  the  globe  of  the  Sun 
is  not  a  source  of  light  to  itself,  much  less  to  us  ;  that,  in  fact, 
light  is  no  more  connected  with  the  Sun  than  with  a  candlestick ; 
and  that  the  Bible  description  of  the  Sun  as  a  light-bearer,  ex¬ 
presses  the  results  of  the  latest  researches  of  Herschell,  Encke, 
and  Arago. 


♦  Cosmos,  vol.  3,  p.  139. 


245 


30 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


The  Sun  consists  mainly  of  a  dark  nucleus,  like  the  body  of  the 
earth,  and  other  planetary  globes,  surrounded  by  two  atmospheres, 
of  enormous  depths,  the  one  nearest  to  him  being  cloudy  and  dense, 
like  our  atmosphere,  while  the  loftier  stratum  consists  of  those 
dazzling  phosphorescent  zephyrs  that  bestow  light  and  heat  on  so 
many  surrounding  spheres.  This  phosphorescent  atmosphere,  or 
photosphere,  as  it  is  called,  is  by  no  means  inseparably  attached  to 
the  surface  of  the  nucleus,  or  in  any  degree  stable,  but  is  subject  to 
extensive  fluctuations,  and  the  most  violent  commotions;  being  fre¬ 
quently  swayed  and  whirled  aside,  laying  bare  the  surface  of  the 
dark  globe  beneath,  for  thousands  of  miles,  to  the  observation  of 
astronomers,  and  even  to  the  naked  eye.  So  far  from  being  neces¬ 
sarily  a  source  of  light  to  the  universe,  the  Sun’s  light  is  but  very 
faintly  visible  on  his  own  globe.  “We  approach  the  question’7 
(of  the  inhabitability  of  the  Sun,)  says  Sir  David  Brewster,  “  with 
the  certain  knowledge  that  the  Sun  is  not  a  red  hot  globe,  but  that 
its  nucleus  is  a  solid,  opaque  mass,  receiving  very  little  light  and 
heat  (only  seven  rays  out  of  a  thousand)  from  its  luminous  atmos¬ 
phere.”  Outside  of  this  photosphere  another  gaseous,  transparent 
atmosphere  has  been  discovered.* 

Any  one  of  these  facts  is  fatal  to  the  assumption,  that  the  Sun 
could  not  exist  without  shining,  and  that  his  light  must  have  neces¬ 
sarily  been  visible  through  the  universe  ever  since  the  creation  of 
the  heavens  and  the  earth.  His  dark,  solid  nucleus  may  have  ex¬ 
isted  for  millions  of  years,  as  the  center  of  gravity,  around  which 
the  solar  system  revolved,  and  have  given  out  no  more  light  or 
heat  than  it  does  this  day,  or  than  the  dark  suns  do  around  which 
Procyon  and  Sirius  now  revolve. t  His  luminous  photosphere  may 
either  not  have  existed  at  all,  or  its  gases  not  have  been  inflamed 
or  electrically  excited  into  luminosity.  No  man  can  adduce  the 
shadow  of  a  proof  that  the  Sun  shone  nine  minutes  before  the  first 
recorded  observation— -namely,  that  recorded  by  the  Author  of  the 
Bible,  in  the  first  of  Genesis.  The  Sun’s  outer  atmosphere  may 
have  been  as  dense  as  his  inner  one:  in  which  case  this  radiance 
of  his  photosphere  would  have  been  as  effectually  veiled  as  a  gas 
lamp  by  a  London  fog.  And  the  simple  possibility  of  any  of  these 


*  Nicholl’s  Solar  System,  174.  Ilerschell’s  Outlines,  §389.  More  Worlds  than  One, 
98.  Cosmos,  vol.  4,  p.  372. 
f  Cosmo?,  vol.  3,  p.  253. 

246 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


31 


events,  or  indeed  of  any  contingency  by  which  the  Sun  could  exist 
as  a  dark  body,  is  quite  sufficient  to  vindicate  the  Bible  from  the 
charge  of  contradicting  the  facts  of  science,  and  teaching  impossi¬ 
bilities.  But  we  will  go  further,  and  show  that  so  far  from  light 
being  an  essential  property  of  suns,  it  is  a  very  variable  attribute, 
and  that  in  several  cases  suns  have  ceased,  and  others  begun  to 
shine,  before  our  eyes. 

.The  fixed  stars  are  self  luminous  bodies,  similar  to  our  Sun,  only 
immensely  distant  from  us.  Their  numbers,  magnitudes,  and 
places,  are  known  and  recorded.  But  new  stars  have  frequently 
flashed  into  view,  where  none  were  previously  seen  to  exist ;  and 
others  have  gradually  grown  dim  and  disappeared,  without  chang¬ 
ing  their  place ;  and  a  few,  which  had  disappeared,  have  re-ap¬ 
peared  in  the  same  spot  they  formerly  occupied  ;  while  others  have 
changed  their  color  since  the  era  of  astronomical  observation.  In 
short,  there  is  no  permanence  in  the  heavens,  any  more  than  on 
the  earth  ;  but  a  perpetual  progress  and  change  is  the  destiny  of 
suns  and  stars,  of  which  the  most  conspicuous  indication  is  the 
variability  of  their  powers  of  giving  light,  of  which  I  shall  trans¬ 
cribe  a  few  instances. 

“On  the  11th  of  November,  1572,  as  the  illustrious  Danish  as¬ 
tronomer,  Tycho,  was  walking  through  the  fields,  he  was  astonished 
to  observe  a  new  star  in  the  constellation  Cassiopea,  beaming  with  a 
radiance  quite  unwonted  in  that  part  of  the  heavens.  Suspecting 
some  delusion  about  his  eyes,  he  went  to  a  group  of  peasants,  to 
ascertain  if  they  saw  it,  and  found  them  gazing  at  it  with  as  much 
astonishment  as  himself.  He  went  to  his  instrument,  and  fixed  its 
place,  from  which  it  never  after  appeared  to  deviate.  For  some 
time  it  increased  in  brightness — greatly  surpassed  Sirius  in  luster, 
and  even  Jupiter.  It  was  seen  by  good  eyes  in  the  day  time:  a 
thing  which  happens  only  to  Venus,  under  very  favorable  circum¬ 
stances  ;  and  at  night  it  pierced  through  clouds  which  obscured  the 
rest  of  the  stars.  After  reaching  its  fullest  brightness,  it  again 
diminished,  passed  through  all  degrees  of  visible  magnitude,  as¬ 
suming  in  succession  the  hues  of  a  dying  conflagration,  and  then 
finally  disappeared.”  “  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  any  thing  more 
tremendous  than  a  conflagration  that  could  be  visible  at  such  a 
distance.”  * 

Astronomers  now  recognize  a  class  of  such  Temporary  titars, 


*  Nieholl’s  Solar  System,  188.  Connection  of  Physical  Sciences,  363. 

247 


32 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


•which  have  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  different  parts  of  the 
heavens,  blazing  forth  with  extraordinary  luster,  and  after  remain¬ 
ing  awhile,  apparently  immovable,  have  died  away,  and  left  no 
trace.*  Twenty-one  of  such  appearances  of  new  suns  are  on 
record.f 

Still  further,  many  familiar  suns  have  ceased  to  shine.  “  On  a 
careful  re-examination  of  the  heavens,  many  stars  are  found  to  be 
missing.”  X  “There  are  many  well  authenticated  cases  of  the  dis¬ 
appearance  of  old  stars,  whose  places  had  been  fixed  with  a  degree 
of  certainty  not  to  be  doubted.  In  October,  1781,  Sir  William  Her- 
schell  observed  a  star,  No.  55  in  Flamstead’s  Catalogue,  in  the  con¬ 
stellation  Hercules.  In  1790  the  same  star  was  observed  by  the 
same  astronomer,  but  since  that  time  no  search  has  been  able  to 
detect  it.  The  stars  80  and  81  of  the  same  catalogue,  both  of  the 
fourth  magnitude,  have  likewise  disappeared.  In  May,  1828,  Sir 
John  Ilerschell  missed  the  star  numbered  42,  in  the  constellation 
Virgo,  which  has  never  since  been  seen.  Examples  might  be  mul¬ 
tiplied,  but  it  is  unnecessary.”  § 

The  demonstration  of  the  variableness  of  the  light-giving  power 
of  suns  is  completed  by  the  phenomena  of  the  class  emphatically 
called  variable  stars ;  though  the  best  astronomers  are  now  agreed 
that  variability ,  and  not  uniformity ,  in  the  emission  of  light,  is  the 
general  character  of  the  stars.  ||  But  the  variations  which  occur 
before  our  eyes  impress  us  more  deeply  than  those  which  require 
centuries  for  their  completion.  Sir  John  Ilerschell  has  observed 
and  graphically  described  one  such  instance  of  variation  of  light. 

“The  star  Eta  Argus  has  always  hitherto  been  regarded  as  a 
star  of  the  second  magnitude ;  and  I  never  had  reason  to  regard  it 
as  variable.  In  November,  1837,  I  saw  it ,  as  usual.  Judge  of  my 
surprise  to  find,  on  the  16th  of  December,  that  it  had  suddenly  be¬ 
come  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude ,  and  almost  equal  to  Bigel.  It 
continued  to  increase.  Bigel  is  now  not  to  be  compared  with  it. 
It  exceeds  Arcturus,  and  is  very  near  equal  to  Alpha  Centauri, 
being,  at  the  moment  I  write,  the  fourth  star  in  the  heavens,  in  the 
order  of  brightness.^  It  has  since  passed  through  several  varia¬ 
tions  of  luster.  Humboldt  gives  a  catalogue  of  twenty-four  of  such 
stars,  whose  variations  have  been  recorded.” 


*  Herschell’s  Outline?,  §827.  §  Mitchell’s  Planetary  and  Stellar  Worlds,  294. 

f  Cosmos,  yoI.  8,  p.  210.  [)  Cosmos,  vol.  3,  p.  253. 

%  Ilersc.hell’s  Outlines,  §  832.  If  Astronomical  Observations,  351. 

248 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


33 


“A  strange  field  of  speculation  is  opened  by  this  phenomenon. 
Here  we  have  a  star  fitfully  variable  to  an  astonishing  extent,  and 
whose  fluctuations  are  spread  over  centuries,  apparently  in  no 
settled  period,  and  with  no  regularity  of  progression.  What  origin 
can  we  ascribe  to  these  sudden  flashes  and  relapses?  What  con¬ 
clusions  are  we  to  draw  as  to  the  comfort  or  habitability  of  a  sys¬ 
tem  depending  for  its  supply  of  light  and  heat  on  such  an  uncertain 
source?  Speculations  of  this  kind  can  hardly  be  termed  visionary, 
when  we  consider  that,  from  what  has  been  before  said,  we  are 
compelled  to  admit  a  community  of  nature  between  the  fixed  stars 
and  our  own  Sun  ;  and  when  we  reflect,  that  geology  testifies  to  the 
fact  of  extensive  changes  having  taken  place,  at  epochs  of  the  most 
remote  antiquity,  in  the  climate  and  temperature  of  our  globe: 
changes  difficult  to  reconcile  with  the  operation  of  secondary 
causes,  such  as  a  different  distribution  of  sea  and  land,  but  which 
would  find  an  easy  and  natural  explanation  in  a  slow  variation  of 
the  supply  of  light  and  heat  afforded  by  the  Sun  himself.”*  “I 
cannot  otherwise  understand  alterations  of  heat  and  cold  so  exten¬ 
sive  as  at  one  period  to  have  clothed  high  northern  latitudes  with 
a  more  than  tropical  luxuriance  of  vegetation,  and  at  another  to 
have  buried  vast  tracts  of  Europe,  now  enjoying  a  genial  climate, 
and  smiling  with  fertility,  under  a  glacier  crust  of  enormous  thick¬ 
ness.  Such  changes  seem  to  point  to  causes  more  powerful  than 
the  mere  local  distribution  of  land  and  water  can  well  be  supposed 
to  have  been.  In  the  slow  secular  variations  of  our  supply  of  light 
and  heat  from  the  Sun,  which ,  in  the  immensity  of  time ,  may  have 
gone  to  any  extent ,  and  succeeded  each  other  in  any  order,  without 
violating  the  analogy  of  siderial  (phenomena  which  we  know  to  have 
taken  place,  we  have  a  cause,  not  indeed  established  as  a  fact,  but 
readily  admissible  as  something  beyond  a  bare  possibility,  fully 
adequate  to  the  utmost  requirements  of  geology.  A  change  of 
half  a  magnitude  on  the  luster  of  our  Sun,  regarded  as  a  fixed  star, 
spread  over  successive  geological  epochs  —  now  progressive,  now 
receding,  now  stationary — is  what  no  astronomer  would  now  hesi¬ 
tate  to  admit  as  a  perfectly  reasonable  and  not  improbable  supposi¬ 
tion.  t 

The  most  eminent  astronomers  are  perfectly  unanimous  in  their 
deductions  from  these  facts.  They  Regard  variability  as  the  gen- 


*  Outlines,  §830. 


f  Astronomical  Observations,  351. 

249 


34 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


eral  characteristic  of  suns  and  stars,  07ir  own  Sun  not  excepted. 
“  We  arc  led.  says  Humboldt,  by  analogy  to  infer,  that  as  the  fixed 
stars  universally  have  not  merely  an  apparent,  but  a  real  motion 
of  their  own,  so  their  surfaces  or  luminous  atmospheres  are  gen¬ 
erally  subject  to  those  changes  (in  their  “light  process”)  which 
recur,  in  the  great  majority,  in  extremely  long,  and  therefore  un¬ 
measured,  and  probably  undeterminable  periods,  or  which,  in  a 
few,  recur  without  being  periodical,  as  it  were,  by  a  sudden  revo¬ 
lution,  either  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time.”  And  he  asks,  Why 
should  our  Sun  differ  from  other  suns  ? 

In  reference  to  the  extinction  of  suns,  he  says:  “What  we  no 
longer  see  is  not  necessarily  annihilated.  It  is  merely  the  transi¬ 
tion  of  matter  into  new  forms — into  combinations  which  are  subject 
to  new  processes.  Dark  cosmical  bodies  may,  by  a  renewed  process 
of  light,  again  become  luminous.”  *  In  confirmation  of  the  fact 
adduced  in  support  of  this  view,  by  La  Place,  “  that  those  stars 
which  have  become  invisible,  after  having  surpassed  Jupiter  in 
brilliancy,  have  not  changed  their  place  during  the  time  they  con¬ 
tinued  visible,”  he  adds,  “The  luminous  process  has  simply  ceased. 
Bessel  asserts  t  that,  “iVo  reason  exists  for  considering  luminosity 
an  essential  property  of  these  bodies”  And  Nicholl  sums  up  the 
matter  in  the  following  emphatic  words:  “No  more  is  light  inhe¬ 
rent  in  the  Sun  than  in  Tycho’s  vanished  star;  and  with  it  and 
other  orbs,  a  time  may  come  when,  through  the  consent  of  all  the 
powers  of  nature,  he  shall  cease  to  be  required  to  shine.  The 
ivomb  which  contains  the  Future  is  that  which  bore  the  Fast.”  | 

Here,  then,  we  behold  astronomy  presenting  to  our  observation 
facts  and  processes  so  similar  to  those  which  revelation  presents  to 
our  faith,  that  all  those  men  who  are  most  profoundly  versed  in  her 
lore,  reasoning  solely  from  the  facts  of  science,  and  without  any 
reference  to  the  Bible,  unanimously  conclude  that  there  was  such  a 
state  of  darkness  and  confusion  before  our  era  as  the  Bible  declares 
— that  its  causes  were  most  probably  such  as  the  Bible  implies — 
and  that  the  sudden  illuminating  of  dark  bodies,  and  their  extinc¬ 
tion,  and  even  re-illuminationj  are  facts  so  perfectly  well  authenti¬ 
cated  as  matters  of  observation  in  regard  to  other  suns,  that  no 
reasonable  man  can  hesitate  to  believe  any  credible  assurance  that 
our  Sun  has  passed  through  such  a  process.  With  what  feelings, 


*  Cosmos,  vol.  3,  p.  222-232. 

250 


f  Cosmos,  vol.  3,  p.  246.  _  %  Solar  System,  190. 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 


35 


then,  are  we  to  regard  the  ignorance  and  brazen-faced  impudence 
of  men  who,  in  defiance  of  the  most  common  facts,  and  in  contra¬ 
diction  to  the  demonstrations  of  science,  blaspheme  the  God  of 
truth  as  a  teacher  of  falsehood,  because  he  speaks  of  light  distinct 
from  that  of  the  Sun?  Surely,  such  men  are  those  whom  he  de¬ 
scribes  as  “  having  the  understanding  darkened,  being  alienated 
from  the  life  of  God,  through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them,  because 
of  the  blindness  of  their  hearts.  In  whom  the  God  of  this  world 
hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not.”  * 

These  facts  of  the  sudden  kindling  of  stars,  their  gradual  passage 
through  all  the  hues  of  a  dying  conflagration,  and  their  final  ex¬ 
tinction  and  present  blackness  of  darkness,  are  facts  of  fearful 
omen  to  the  enemies  of  God.  They  are  the  original  threatenings 
of  Heaven,  whence  the  fearful  language  of  Bible  warning  is  de¬ 
rived.  They  attest  its  truth,  and  illustrate  its  import. 

The  favorite  theory  of  the  unbeliever  is  the  uniformity  of  nature. 
“Where,”  says  he,  “is  the  promise  of  Christ’s  coming  to  judgment ; 
for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they  were 
since  the  beginning  of  the  world?”  But  the  telescope  dispels  the 
illusion,  exhibits  the  course  of  nature  as  a  succession  of  catastro¬ 
phes,  displays  the  conflagration  of  other  worlds,  and  the  extinction 
of  their  suns,  before  our  eye-s,  and  asks,  Why  should  our  Sun  differ 
from  other  suns?  It  is  not  the  preacher,  but  the  philosopher,  who 
has  turned  prophet,  when — looking  back  on  the  period  when  the 
Siberian  elephant  and  rhinoceros  were  frozen  amidst  their  native 
jungle,  p.nd  icebergs  visited  the  plains  of  India — he  proclaims,  “ The 
womb  that  bore  the  Past  contains  the  Future.” 

The  threatenings  of  God’s  word  are  invested  with  a  mantle  of 
terrible  literal! ty  by  the  facts  we  have  been  contemplating,  liaised 
at  the  day  of  resurrection,  in  these  bodies,  and  with  these  senses, 
and  this  capability  of  rejoicing  in  the  light,  and  shuddering  and 
pining  amidst  outward  gloom,  physical  darkness  will  be  the  terri¬ 
ble  prison  of  those  who  chose  darkness  rather  than  light,  because 
their  deeds  were  evil.  The  Father  of  Lights  shall  withdraw  his 
blessed  influences  from  the  hearts,  the  dwellings,  the  eyes,  of  those 
who  say  to  him,  “  Depart  from  us,  for  we  desire  not  the  knowledge 
of  thy  ways.”  The  Sun  shall  cease  to  vivify  God’s  corn,  and  wine, 
and  oil,  which  ungodly  men  consume  upon  their  lusts.  The  Moon 
shall  cease  to  shine  upon  the  robber’s  toil,  and  the  Stars  to  illumine 


*  Eph.  4:18.  2  Cor.  4 :  4. 


251 


36 


# 


DAYLIGHT  BEFORE  SUNRISE. 

the  adulterer’s  path.  The  light  of  Heaven  shall  cease  to  gild  the 
field  of  carnage,  where  men  perform  the  work  of  Hell.  In  the  very 
midst  of  your  worldliness  and  business,  Unbeliever,  when  you  are 
in  all  the  engrossment  of  buying  and  selling,  and  planting  and 
building,  and  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  without  warning 
or  expectation,  “  the  Sun  shall  go  down  at  noon,  and  the  stars  shall 
be  darkened  in  the  clear  day.”  As  in  the  warning  and  example 
given  to  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  in  Egypt,  thick  darkness,  that 
may  be  felt,  shall  wind  its  inevitable  chains  around  you,  preventing 
your  escape  from  the  judgment  of  the  great  day,  and  giving  you  a 
fearful  foretaste  of  that  “  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever  ”  of  which 
you  are  now  forewarned  in  the  Word  of  Truth. 

“  The  Sun  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  Moon  shall  not  give  her 
light,  ^ 

“  And  the  stars  shall  fall  from  the  heavens, 

“  And  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be  shaken ; 

“And  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the 
heavens, 

“And  then  shall  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  mourn ; 

“And  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven, 

“With  power  and  great  glory.” 

“  Cast  ye  the  unprofitable  servant  into  outer  darkness  ; 

“  There  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth.” 

“  Hear  ye,  and  give  ear  ;  be  not  proud, 

“For  the  Lord  hath  spoken. 

“Give  glory  to  the  Lord,  your  God, 

“  Before  he  cause  darkness, 

“And  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the  dark  mountains; 

“And  while  ye  look  for  light, 

“He  turn  it  into  the  shadow  of  death, 

“  And  make  it  gross  darkness.” 

“  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  ; 

“  He  that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness, 

“  But  shall  have  the  light  of  life.”  * 

*  Matthew,  24 :  29.  John,  8 :  12.  Jere.  13  :  15.  Matt.  22  :  13,  and  25  :  30. 


/ 


Wo.  S3 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

No  kind  of  knowledge  is  more  useful  to  man  than  the  knowledge 
of  his  own  ignorance ;  and  no  instrument  has  done  more  to  give 
him  such  knowledge  than  the  telescope.  Faith  is  the  believing  of 
facts  we  do  not  know,  upon  the  word  of  one  who  does.  If  any  one 
knows  every  thing,  or  thinks  he  does,  he  can  have  no  faith.  A 
deep  conviction  of  our  own  ignorance  is,  therefore,  indispensable 
to  faith.  The  telescope  gives  us  this  conviction,  in  two  ways.  It 
shows  us  that  we  see  a  great  many  things  we  do  not  perceive,  tells 
us  the  size  and  the  distances  of  those  little  sparks  that  adorn  the 
sky,  and  leads  us  to  reason  out  their  true  relations  to  our  earth. 
Then  it  tells  us  that  what  we  see  is  little  of  what  is  to  be  seen  ; 
that  our  knowledge  is  but  a  drop  from  the  great  ocean — a  rush- 
light,  sparkling  in  the  vast  darkness  of  the  unknown.  It  tells  us 
that  we  do  not  see  right,  and  that  we  do  not  see  far ;  and  that 
there  may  be  things,  both  in  heaven  and  earth,  not  dreamed  of  in 
our  philosophy.  Further,  it  confirms  the  Bible  testimony  concern¬ 
ing  the  facts  of  its  own  province,  by  removing  all  improbability 
from  some  of  its  most  wonderful  narratives,  attesting  the  accuracy 
of  its  language,  and  confirming,  by  some  of  its  most  recent  dis¬ 
coveries,  the  truth  of  its  statements.  Our  space  will  only  allow  us 
to  select  five  illustrations  of  the  tendency  of  faith  in  the  telescope, 
to  produce  faith  in  the  Bible. 

1.  One  of  the  latest  astronomical  discoveries  throws  light  upon 
one  of  the  most  ancient  scientific  allusions  of  the  Bible,  and  one 
which  has  perplexed  both  commentators  and  geologists:  that  which 
hints  at  the  second  causes  of  the  deluge.  Not  that  it  is  at  all  need¬ 
ful  for  us  to  be  able  to  tell  where  God  Almighty  procured  the  water 
to  drown  the  ungodly  sinners  of  the  old  world,  before  we  believe 
his  word  that  he  did  so ;  unless,  indeed,  somebody  has  explored 
the  universe,  and  knows  that  there  is  not  water  enough  in  it  for 
that  purpose,  or  that  it  is  so  far  away  that  he  could  not  fetch  it ; 
for,  as  to  the  fact  itself,  geology  assures  us  that  all  the  dry  land  on 
earth  has  been  drowned,  not  only  once,  but  many  times.  It  is  not 
the  province  of  the  commentator,  but  of  the  geologist,  to  account 
for  the  phenomenon. 


253 


Z  TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

Several  solutions  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  water  enough  for  the 
purpose  have  been  proposed.  One  of  these  supposes  that,  as  the 
earth  is  known  by  its  density  not  to  be  solid,  some  of  its  internal 
caverns  are  filled  with  water,  which,  when  heated  b)r  neighboring 
volcanic  fires,  would  expand  one  twenty-third  of  its  bulk,  and  flow 
out,  and  raise  the  ocean.  When  the  volcanic  fire  was  burnt  out, 
and  the  water  cooled,  it  would  of  course  contract  to  its  former 
dimensions,  and  the  ocean  recede.  These  caverns  they  suppose  to 
be  meant  by  “  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep,”  in  Genesis  vii:  11. 

But  the  Bible  describes  another,  and  plainly  a  very  important 
source  of  the  waters  of  the  deluge,  in  the  rain  which  fell  for  forty 
days  and  forty  nights.  At  present,  all  the  water  in  our  atmosphere 
comes  from  the  sea,  by  evaporation ;  and  the  quantity  is  too  insig¬ 
nificant  to  cover  the  globe  to  any  considerable  depth.  Divines 
and  philosophers  were  perplexed  to  give  any  adequate  explanation 
of  this  language,  and  considered  it  simply  as  Noah’s  description  of 
the  appearance  of  things  as  viewed  from  the  ark,  rather  than  an 
accurate  explanation  of  the  actual  causes  of  the  deluge.  Now,  it 
is  certainly  true,  that  the  Bible  does  describe  things  as  they  appear 
to  men.  It  is,  however,  beginning  to  be  discovered,  that  these  pop¬ 
ular  appearances  are  far  more  closely  connected  with  philosophical 
reality  than  a  self-sufficient  pedantry  will  allow.  Our  purblind 
astronomy  and  prattling  geology  may  be  as  inadequate  to  expound 
the  mysteries  of  the  Bible  philosophy,  as  was  the  incoherent  science 
of  Strabo  and  Ptolemy.  The  experience  of  another  planet,  now 
transacting  before  our  eyes,  admonishes  us  not  to  limit  the  re¬ 
sources  of  Omnipotence  by  our  narrow  experience,  or  to  suppose 
that  our  young  science  has  catalogued  all  the  weapons  in  the  arse¬ 
nal  of  the  Almighty. 

The  planet  Saturn  is  surrounded  by  a  revolving  belt,  consisting 
of  several  distinct  rings,  containing  an  area  a  hundred  and  forty- 
six  times  greater  than  the  surface  of  our  globe,  with  a  thickness  of 
a  hundred  miles.  From  mechanical  considerations  it  had  been 
proved  that  these  rings  could  not  be  of  a  uniform  thickness  all 
around,  else  when  a  majority  of  his  seven  moons  were  on  the  same 
side,  the  attraction  would  draw  them  in  upon  him,  on  the  opposite 
side ;  and  once  attracted  to  his  surface,  they  could  never  get  loose 
again,  if  they  were  solid.*  It  was  next  ascertained  that  the  mo- 


254 


*  Kendall’s  Uranography,  2G8. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


3 


tions  of  the  moons  and  of  the  rings  were  such,  that  if  the  inequality 
was  always  in  the  same  place,  the  same  result  must  follow ;  so  that 
the  ring  must  be  capable  of  changing  its  thickness,  according  to 
circumstances.  It  must  be  either  composed  of  an  immense  number 
of  small  solid  bodies,  capable  of  shifting  freely  about  among  them¬ 
selves,  or  else  be  fluid.  Finally,  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  this 
last  is  the  fact ;  that  the  density  of  this  celestial  ocean  is  nearly 
that  of  water ;  and  that  the  inner  portion,  at  least,  is  so  transpa¬ 
rent,  that  the  planet  has  been  seen  through  it.*  “  The  ring  of 
Saturn  is,  then,  a  stream  or  streams  of  fluid,  rather  denser  than 
water,  flowing  about  the  primary.”  t  The  extraordinary  fact, 
which  shows  us  how  God  can  deluge  a  planet  when  he  pleases, 
I  give  not  in  the  words  of  a  divine,  but  of  a  philosopher,  whose 
thoughtless  illustration  of  scripture  is  all  the  more  valuable,  that 

it  is  evidentlv  unintentional. 

•/ 

“  M.  Otto  Struve,  Mr.  Bond,  and  Sir  David  Brewster,  are  agreed 
that  Saturn’s  third  ring  is  fluid,  that  it  is  not  of  very  recent  for¬ 
mation,  and  that  it  is  not  subject  to  rapid  change.  And  they  have 
come  to  the  extraordinary  conclusion,  that  the  inner  border  of  the 
ring  has,  since  the  day  of  Huygens,  been  gradually  approaching  to 
the  body  of  Saturn,  and  that  we  may  expect,  sooner  or  later — per¬ 
haps  in  some  dozen  years — to  see  the  rings  united  with  the  body 
of  the  planet.  With  this  deluge  impending,  Saturn  would  scarcely 
he  a  very  eligible  residence  for  men,  whatever  it  might  be  for  dol¬ 
phins .”  + 

Knowing,  as  we  most  certainly  do,  that  the  fluid  envelopes  of 
our  own  planet  were  once  exceedingly  different  from  the  present,  \ 
here  is  a  possibility  quite  sufficient  to  stop  the  mouth  of  the  scoffer. 
Let  him  show  that  God  did  not,  or  prove  that  he  could  not,  suspend 
a  similar  series  of  oceans  over  the  earth,  or  cease  to  pronounce  a 
universal  deluge  impossible. 

2.  That  sublime  ode,  in  which  Deborah  describes  the  stars  in 
their  courses  as  fighting  against  $i‘senz,||  has  been  rescued  from 
the  grasp  of  modern  scoffers  and  impostors,  by  the  progress  of 
astronomy.  By  both  these  classes  has  it  been  alleged  as  lending 
its  support  to  the  delusions  of  judicial  astrology;  the  one  class 
desiring  to  damage  the  Bible  as  a  teacher  of  superstition,  and  the 

*  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery,  1856,  p.  380.  f  lb.,  1852,  p.  376. 

J  lb.,  1856,  p.  377.  §  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  pp.  198-215.  ||  Judges,  5. 

1  255 


4 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


other  to  help  their  trade  by  pleading  its  authority.  The  Bible 
reader  will  doubtless  be  greatly  surprised  to  hear  it  asserted,  that 
the  Bible  lends  its  sanction  to  this  antiquated,  and,  as  he  thinks, 
exploded  superstition.  He  knows  how  expressly  the  Bible  forbids 
God’s  people  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  it,  or  with  its  heathenish 
professors.  “Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Learn  not  the  way  of  the  hea¬ 
then,  and  be  not  dismayed  at  the  signs  of  heaven,  for  the  heathen 
are  dismayed  at- them.”*  And  they  will  be  still  more  surprised 
to  learn,  that  those  who  object  against  the  Bible,  that  it  ascribes 
a  controlling  influence  to  the  stars,  are  firm  believers  in  Reichen- 
bach’s  discovery  of  odyle :  an  influence  from  the  heavenly  bodies 
so  spiritual  and  powerful,  that  they  imagine  it  able  to  govern  the 
world,  instead  of  God  Almighty.f 

The  passage  thus  variously  abused  is  a  description,  in  highly 
poetic  strains,  of  the  battle  between  the  troops  of  Israel  and  those 
of  Sisera:  of  the  defeat  of  the  latter,  and  of  an  earthquake  and 
tempest,  which  completed  the  destruction  of  his  exhausted  troops. 
The  glory  of  the  victory  is  wholly  ascribed  to  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel ;  while  the  rain,  the  thunder,  lightning,  swollen  river,  and 
“  the  stars  in  their  courses,”  are  all  described,  in  their  subordinate 
places,  as  only  his  instruments — the  weapons  of  his  arsenal. 

“Lord,  when  thou  wentest  out  of  Seir, 


*  Jeremiah,  10. 

f  Some  of  my  readers  may  deem  any  notice  of  such  a  subject,  in  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  entirely  unneenssary  ;  but  having  lived  for  some  years  within  sight  of  the  dwell¬ 
ing  of  a  woman  who  publicly  advertised  herself  in  the  newspapers  as  a  professor  of 
astrology,  and  seen  the  continual  flow  of  troubled  minds  to  the  promised  light — the 
humble  serving-girl  stealing  up  the  side  entrance,  and  the  princely  chariot  discharg¬ 
ing  its  willing  dupes  at  the  door,  and  rolling  hastily  awa}7,  to  await  them  at  the  corner 
—I  know  of  a  certainty  that  folly  is  not  yet  dead.  There  are  women — aye,  and  men 
too — who  are  above  the  folly  of  reading  the  Bible,  but  just  wise  enough  to  pay  five 
dollars  for,  and  spend  hours  in  the  study  of,  an  uncouth  astrological  picture,  repre¬ 
senting  a  collocation  of  the  stars,  which  was  never  witnessed  by  any  astronomer — 
men  who  would  not  give  way  to  the  superstition  of  supposing  that  their  destiny  was 
regulated  by  the  will  of  Almighty  God,  yet  believe  that  every  living  creature’s  fate  is 
regulated  by  the  aspect  of  the  stars  at  the  hour  of  his  nativity  ;  the  same  stars  always 
causing  the  same  period  of  life  and  mode  of  death  ;  though  every  day’s  experience 
testifies  the  contrary.  The  same  stars  presided  over  the  birth  of  the  poor  soldier,  who 
perished  in  an  instant  at  Atisterlitz  ;  of  his  Imperial  Master,  w-ho  pined  for  years  in 
St.  Helena;  of  the  old  gentleman  who  died  in  his  own  bed,  of  gout;  and  of  the  batch 
of  puppies,  whereof  old  Towser  was  the  only  surviving  representative,  the  olher  nine 
having  found  their  fate  in  the  horse-pond,  in  defiance  of  the  controlling  stars.  They 
were  all  born  at  the  same  hour,  and  under  the  same  auspices,  and  destined  to  the 
same  fate,  by  the  laws  of  astrology. 

256 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


5 


“  When  thou  marchedst  out  of  the  field  of  Edom, 

“  The  earth  trembled,  and  the  heavens  dropped, 

“  The  clouds  also  dropped  down  water ; 

“  The  mountains  also  melted  from  before  the  Lord, 

“Even  that  Sinai,  from  before  the  Lord  God  of  Israel/7 

Then,  after  describing  the  battle,  she  alludes  to  the  celestial 
artillery,  and  to  the  effects  of  the  storm  in  swelling  the  river,  and 
sweeping  away  the  fugitives  who  had  sought  the  fords: 

“  They  fought  from  heaven  ; 

“  The  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera; 

“  The  river  Ivishon  swept  them  away: 

“  That  ancient  river,  the  river  Kishon.”  * 

After  describing  some  further  particulars,  the  hymn  concludes 
with  an  allusion  to  the  clearing  away  of  the  tempest,  and  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  the  unclouded  Sun  over  the  field  of  victory : 

“So  let  all  thine  enemies  perish,  0,  Lord ; 

“  But  let  them  that  love  thee  be  as  the  Sun,  when  he  goeth  forth 
in  his  might/7 

Where  is  there  the  least  allusion  here  to  any  controlling  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  stars?  You  might  just  as  Avell  say,  “The  Bible  as¬ 
cribes  a  controlling  influence  over  the  destinies  of  men,  to  the  river 
Kishon  for  they  are  both  spoken  of,  in  the  same  language,  as  in¬ 
struments  in  God’s  hand  for  the  destruction  of  his  enemies. 

But  it  is  objected,  “  Even  by  this  explanation  you  have  the  Bible 
representing  the  stars  as  causing  the  rain.”  Not  so  fast.  If  a 
man  were  very  ignorant,  and  had  never  heard  of  any  thing  falling 
from  the  sky  but  rain,  he  might  think  so.  And  if  the  Bible  did 
attribute  to  the  stars  some  such  influence  over  the  vapors  of  the 
atmosphere,  as  experience  shows  the  moon  to  possess  over  the 
ocean,  are  you  able  to  demonstrate  its  absurdity  ? 

Deborah,  however,  when  she  sang  of  the  stars  in  their  courses 
fighting  against  Sisera,  was  describing  a  phenomenon  very  differ¬ 
ent  from  a  fall  of  rain — was,  in  fact,  describing  a  fall  of  serolites 
upon  the  army  of  Sisera.  Multitudes  of  stones  have  fallen  from 
the  sky,  and  not  less  than  five  hundred  such  falls  are  recorded. 

“On  Sept.  1st,  1814,  a  few  minutes  before  midday,  while  the  sky 
was  perfectly  serene,  a  violent  detonation  was  heard  in  the  depart¬ 
ment  of  the  Lot  and  Garonne.  This  was  followed  by  three  or  four 


17 


*  Judges,  5th  ch. 


257 


6 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


others,  and  finally  by  a  rolling  noise,  at  first  resembling  a  dis¬ 
charge  of  musketry,  afterwards  the  rumbling  of  carriages,  and 
lastly  that  of  a  large  building  falling  down.  Stones  were  imme¬ 
diately  after  precipitated  to  the  ground,  some  of  which  weighed 
eighteen  pounds,  and  sunk  into  a  compact  soil,  to  the  depth  of 
eight  or  nine  inches ;  and  one  of  them  rebounded  three  or  four  feet 
from  the  ground.” 

“  A  great  shower  of  stones  fell  at  Barbatan,  near  Roquefort,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Bordeaux,  on  July  24th,  1790.  A  mass  fifteen 
inches  in  diameter  penetrated  a  hut  and  killed  a  herdsman  and 
bullock.  Some  of  the  stones  weighed  twenty-five  pounds,  and 
others  thirty  pounds.” 

“In  July,  1810,  a  large  ball  of  fire  fell  from  the  clouds,  at  Sha- 
habad,  which  burned  five  villages,  destroyed  the  crops,  and  killed 
several  men  and  women.”  * 

Astronomers  are  perfectly  agreed  as  to  the  character  of  these 
masses,  and  the  source  whence  they  come.  “  It  appears  from  re¬ 
cent  astronomical  observations  that  the  Sun  numbers  among  his 
attendants  not  only  planets,  asteroids,  and  comets,  but  also  im¬ 
mense  multitudes  of  meteoric  stones  and  shooting  stars.”  f  Aero¬ 
lites  are,  then,  really  stars.  They  are  composed  of  materials 
similar  to  those  of  our  earth:  the  only  other  star  whose  materials 
we  can  compare  with  them.  They  have  a  proper  motion  around 
the  Sun,  in  orbits  distinct  from  that  of  the  earth.  They  are  capa¬ 
ble  of  emitting  the  most  brilliant  light,  in  favorable  circumstances. 
Some  of  them  are  as  large  as  the  asteroids.  One,  of  600,000  tons 
weight,  passed  within  25  miles  of  the  earth,  at  the  rate  of  20  miles 
a  second.  A  fragment  of  it  reached  the  earth. f  “  That  aerolites 
were  called  stars  by  the  ancients,  is  indisputable.  Indeed,  Anaxa¬ 
goras  considered  the  stars  to  be  only  stony  masses,  torn  from  the 
earth  by  the  violence  of  rotation.  Democritus  tells  us  that  invisible 
dark  masses  of  stone  move  with  the  visible  stars,  and  remain  on 
that  account  unknown,  but  sometimes  fall  upon  the  earth,  and  are 
extinguished,  as  happened  with  the  stony  star  which  fell  near 
Aegos  Potamos.^ 

*  Dick’s  Celestial  Scenery,  p.  57,  Applegate’s  edition,  where  many  such  instances  are 
related. 

f  Vaughn’s  Report  to  the  American  Association  for  the  advancement  of  Science,  in 
Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery  for  1855,  p.  364. 

£  Somerville’s  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  382. 

g  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  122;  vol.  4,  p.  569. 

258 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


7 


When  Deborah,  therefore,  describes  the  stars  in  their  courses  as 
fighting  against  Sisera,  it  is  an  utterly  unfounded  assumption  to 
suppose  that  she  has  any  allusion  to  the  baseless  fancies  of  an  as¬ 
trology  every-where  condemned  by  the  religion  she  professed, 
when  a  simple  and  natural  explanation  is  afforded  by  the  fact,  that 
stars  do  fall  from  the  heavens  to  the  earth,  and  that  they  do  so  in 
their  courses ,  and  just  by  reason  of  their  orbital  motion  ;  and  that 
the  ancients  both  knew  the  fact,  and  gave  the  right  name  to  those 
bodies.  Let  no  reasonable  man  delude  himself  with  the  notion  that 
God  has  no  weapons  more  formidable  than  the  dotings  of  astrology, 
till  he  has  taken  a  view  of  the  arsenals  of  God’s  artillery,  which  he 
has  treasured  up  against  the  day  of  battle  and  of  war. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  notice  the  illustration  which  the  remark¬ 
able  showers  of  November  meteors,  particularly  those  of  Novem¬ 
ber,  1833,  shed  upon  several  much  ridiculed  texts  of  scripture. 
Scientific  observation  has  fully  confirmed  and  illustrated  the  scien¬ 
tific  accuracy  of  the  Bible  in  such  expressions  as,  “  the  stars  shall 
fall  from  heaven;”  “there  fell  a  great  star  from  heaven,  burning 
as  it  were  a  lamp;”  “and  the  stars  of  heaven  fell  unto  the  earth, 
even  as  a  fig-tree  casteth  her  untimely  figs,  when  she  is  shaken  of 
a  mighty  wind.”  Whatever  political  or  ecclesiastical  events  these 
symbols  may  signify,  there  can  be  no  question,  now,  that  the  as¬ 
tronomical  phenomenon  used  to  prefigure  them  is  correctly  de¬ 
scribed  in  the  Bible.  Most  of  my  readers  have  seen  some  of  these 
remarkable  exhibitions ;  but  for  the  sake  of  those  who  have  not,  I 
give  a  brief  account  of  one.  “  By  much  the  most  splendid  mete¬ 
oric  shower  on  record,  began  at  nine  o’clock,  on  the  evening  of  the 
12th  of  November,  1833,  and  lasted  till  sunrise  next  morning.  It 
extended  from  Niagara,  and  the  northern  lakes  of  America,  to  the 
south  of  Jamaica,  and  from  61°  of  longitude,  in  the  Atlantic,  to 
100°  of  longitude  in  Central  Mexico.  Shooting  stars  and  meteors 
of  the  apparent  size  of  Jupiter,  Yenus,  and  even  the  full  moon, 
darted  in  ni}7riads  towards  the  horizon,  as  if  every  star  in  the 
heavens  had  darted  from  their  spheres .”  They  are  described  as 
having  been  as  frequent  as  the  flakes  of  snow  in  a  snow-storm,  and 
to  have  been  seen  with  equal  brilliancy  over  the  greater  part  of 
the  continent  of  North  America.* 

The  source  whence  these  meteors  proceed  is  distinctly  ascer- 


*  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  o83. 


259 


8 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


tained  to  be,  as  was  already  remarked  with  regard  to  the  aerolites, 
a  belt  of  small  planetoids,  revolving  around  the  Sun  in  a  little  less 
than  a  year,  and  in  an  orbit  intersecting  that  of  the  earth,  at  such 
an  angle,  that  every  thirty-three  years,  or  thereabouts,  the  earth 
meets  the  full  tide  on  the  12th  of  November.  These  meteors  are 
true  and  proper  stars.  “  All  the  observations  made  during  the 
year  1853  agree  with  those  of  previous  years,  and  confirm  what 
may  be  regarded  as  sufficiently  well  established :  the  cosmical 
origin  of  shooting  stars.”  * 

3.  The  language  of  the  Bible  with  respect  to  the  circuit  of  the 
Sun  is  found  to  have  anticipated  one  of  the  most  sublime  discove¬ 
ries  of  modern  astronomy.  True  to  the  reality,  as  well  as  to  the 
appearance  of  things,  it  is  scientifically  correct,  without  becoming 
popularly  unintelligible. 

There  is  a  class  of  aspirants  to  gentility  who  refuse  to  recognize 
any  person  not  dressed  in  the  style  which  they  suppose  fashionable 
among  the  higher  classes.  A  Glasgow  butcher’s  wife,  in  the  High¬ 
lands,  attired  in  all  the  magnificence  of  her  satins,  laces,  and  jew¬ 
elry,  returned  the  courteous  salute  of  the  little  woman  in  the  ging¬ 
ham  dress  and  gray  shawl  with  a  contemptuous  toss  of  the  head, 
and  flounced  past,  to  learn,  to  her  great  mortification,  that  she  had 
missed  an  opportunity  of  forming  an  acquaintance  with  the  Queen. 
So  a  large  class  of  pretenders  to  science  refuse  to  become  acquainted 
with  Bible  truth,  because  it  is  not  shrouded  in  the  technicalities  of 
science,  but  displays  itself  in  the  plain  speech  of  the  common 
people  to  whom  it  was  given.  They  will  have  it,  that  because  its 
author  used  common  language,  it  was  because  he  could  not  affurd 
any  other ;  and  as  he  did  not  contradict  every  vulgar  error  believed 
by  the  people  to  whom  he  spoke,  it  was  because  he  knew  no  better; 
and  because  the  Hebrews  knew  nothing  of  modern  discoveries 
in  astronomy,  geology,  and  the  other  sciences,  and  the  Bible  does 
not  contain  lectures  on  these  subjects,  the  God  of  the  Hebrews 
must  have  been  equally  ignorant,  and  the  Bible  consequently  be¬ 
neath  the  notice  of  a  philosopher. 

You  will  hear  such  persons  most  pertinaciously  assert,  that 
Moses  believed  all  the  absurdities  of  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy : 
that  the  earth  is  the  immovable  center,  around  which  revolve  the 
crystal  sphere  of  the  firmament,  and  the  Sun,  and  Moon,  and  stars, 


2G0 


*  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery,  1854,  p.  3G1. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


9 


'which  arc  attached  to  it,  after  the  manner  of  lamps  to  a  ceiling; 
and  that  he,  and  the  world  generally  in  his  day,  had  not  emerged 
from  the  grossest  barbarism  and  ignorance  of  all  matters  of  natu¬ 
ral  science.  Yet  these  very  people  will  probably  tell  you,  in  the 
same  conversation,  of  the  wonderful  astronomical  observations 
made  by  the  Egyptians,  ten  thousand  years  before  the  days  of 
Adam !  So  beautiful  is  the  consistency  of  infidel  science.  But 
when  you  enquire  into  the  source  of  their  knowledge  of  the  philo¬ 
sophy  of  the  ancients,  you  discover  that  they  did  not  draw  it  from 
the  writings  of  Moses,  of  which  they  betray  the  grossest  ignorance, 
nor  of  any  one  who  lived  within  a  thousand  years  of  Moses7  time. 
Voltaire  is  their  authority  for  all  such  matters.  He  transferred 
to  the  early  Asiatics  all  the  absurdities  of  the  later  Greek  philoso¬ 
phers,  and  would  have  us  believe  that  Moses,  who  wrote  before 
these  Greeks  had  learned  to  read,  was  indebted  to  them  for  his 
philosophy.  Of  the  learning  of  the  ancient  patriarchs  Voltaire 
does  not  tell  them  much,  for  a  satisfactory  reason. 

Yet  it  might  not  have  required  much  learning  to  infer,  that  the 
eyes,  and  ears,  and  nerves  of  men  who  lived  ten  times  as  long  as 
we  can,  must  have  been  more  perfect  than  ours;  that  a  man  who 
could  observe  nature  with  such  eyes,  under  a  sky  where  Stoddart 
now  sees  the  ring  of  Saturn,  the  crescent  of  Venus,  and  the  moons 
of  Jupiter,  with  the  naked  eye,*  and  continue  his  observations  for 
eight  hundred  years,  would  certainly  acquire  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  appearance  of  things  than  any  number  of  generations  of 
short-lived  men,  called  away  by  death  before  they  have  well  learned 
how  to  observe,  and  able  only  to  leave  the  shell  of  their  discoveries 
to  their  successors  ;  that  unless  we  have  some  good  reason  for  be¬ 
lieving  that  the  mind  of  man  was  greatly  inferior,  before  the  flood, 
to  what  it  now  is,  the  antediluvians  must  have  made  a  progress  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  physical  sciences,  during  the  three  thousand 
one  hundred  and  fifty-five  years  which  elapsed  from  the  creation  to 
the  deluge,  much  greater  than  the  nations  of  Europe  have  effected 
since  they  began  to  learn  their  A,  B,  C,  about  the  same  number  of 
years  ago ;  and  that  though  Noah  and  his  sons  might  not  have  pre¬ 
served  all  the  learning  of  their  drowned  contemporaries,  they  would 
still  have  enough  to  preserve  them  from  the  reproach  of  ignorance 
and  barbarism  ;  at  least  until  their  sons  have  succeeded  in  building 


*  Letter  to  Herschell,  from  Oroomiah,  in  Persia — Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery, 
1854,  p.  367. 


/ 


2G1 


10 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


a  larger  ship  than  the  ark,  or  a  city  which  would  not  look  con¬ 
temptible  in  the  suburbs  of  Babylon. 

When  we  know  that  the  Chaldeans  taught  the  Egyptians  the 
expansive  power  of  steam,  and  the  induction  of  electricity  by 
pointed  conductors;  —  that  from  the  most  remote  antiquity  the 
Chinese  were  acquainted  with  decimal  fractions,  electro-magnetism, 
the  mariner’s  compass,  and  the  art  of  making  glass; — that  lenses 
have  been  found  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  and  that  an  artificial  cur¬ 
rency  was  in  circulation  in  the  first  cities  built  after  the  flood  ;* — 
that  astronomical  observations  were  made  in  China,  with  so  much 
accuracy,  from  the  deluge  till  the  days  of  Yau,  B.  C.,  2357,  that 
the  necessary  intercalations  were  made  for  harmonizing  the  solar 
with  the  lunar  year,  and  fixing  the  true  period  of  36.5 J  days  ; — and 
that  similar  observations  were  conducted  to  a  like  result  within  a 
few  years  of  the  same  remote  period#  in  Babylon  ; — if  he  does  not 
conclude  that  the  world  may  have  forgotten  as  much  ancient  lore 
during  eighteen  hundred  years  of  idolatrous  barbarism  before  the 
coming  of  Christ,  as  it  has  learned  in  the  same  number  since — will, 
at  least,  satisfy  himself  that  the  ancient  patriarchs  were  not  igno¬ 
rant  savages. f  “Whole  nations,”  says  La  Place,  “have  been 
swept  from  the  earth,  with  their  languages,  arts,  and  sciences, 
leaving  but  confused  masses  of  ruins  to  mark  the  place  where 
mighty  cities  stood.  Their  history,  with  a  few  doubtful  traditions, 
has  perished  ;  but  the  perfection  of  their  astronomical  observations 
marks  their  high  antiquity ,  fixes  the  periods  of  their  existence,  and 
proves  that  even  at  that  early  time  they  must  have  made  consider¬ 
able  progress  in  science.”  X  The  infidel  theory,  that  the  first  men 
were  savages,  is  a  pure  fiction,  refuted  by  every  known  fact  of 
their  history. 

That,  however,  is  not  the  matter  under  discussion.  We  are  not 
enquiring,  now,  what  Moses  and  the  prophets  thought,  but  what 
the  author  of  the  Bible  told  them  to  say.  The  scribe  writes  as  his 


*  “  These  tablets  (of  unbaked  clay,  with  inscriptions,  found  in  the  tombs  of  Erech, 
the  city  of  Nimrod — Gen.  10:  10 — and  deciphered  by  Rawlinson,)  were,  in  point  of 
fact,  the.  equivalent  of  our  bank  notes,  and  prove  that  a  system  of  artificial  currency 
prevailed  in  Babylon  and  Persia  at  an  unprecedentedly  early  age :  centuries  before 
the  introduction  of  paper  and  writing. 

Rawlinson,  in  News  of  the  Churches,  February,  1857.  p.  50. 
f  Wilkinson’s  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Egyptians,  vol.  3,  p.  106  ;  Cosmos,  vol.  1, 
pp.  173,  182 ;  Chinese  Repository,  v.  9,  p.  573;  Williams’  Middle  Kingdom,  vol.  2,  p.  147. 
%  Connection  of  Physical  Sciences,  82. 

2G2 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


11 


employer  dictates.  “I  will  put  my  words  in  thy  mouth, ”  said  God 
to  Jeremiah.  “My  tongue  is  as  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer,”  said 
David.  The  prophets  began,  not  with  “Thus  saith  Isaiah,”  but 
“  Thus  saith  the  Lord.”  Unless  the  Word  of  God  was  utterly  dif¬ 
ferent  from  all  his  other  works,  it  must  transcend  the  comprehen¬ 
sion  of  man  in  some  respects.  The  profoundest  philosopher  is  as 
ignorant  of  the  cause  of  the  vegetation  of  wheat,  as  the  mower  who 
nuts  it  down ;  but  their  ignorance  of  the  mysteries  of  organic  force 
is  no  reason  why  the  one  may  not  harvest,  and  the  other  eat  and 
live.  Just  so  God’s  prophefs  conveyed  precious  mysteries  to  the 
Church,  of  the  full  import  of  which  they  themselves  were  ignorant; 
even  as  Daniel  heard  but  understood  not ;  and  the  prophets  to 
whom  it  was  revealed  that  they  did  not  minister  to  themselves,  but 
to  us,  enquired  and  searched  diligently  into  the  meaning  of  their 
own  prophecies ;  which  meaning,  nevertheless,  continued  hid  for 
ages  and  generations.*  If  the  prophets  of  the  old  economy  might 
be  ignorant  of  the  privileges  of  the  gospel  day,  of  which  they 
prophesied,  at  God’s  dictation,  they  might  very  well  be  ignorant, 
also,  of  the  philosophy  of  creation,  and  yet  write  a  true  account  of 
the  facts,  from  his  mouth. 

Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  ancient  Hebrews  and  their 
prophets  were,  if  not  quite  as  ignorant  of  natural  science  as 
modern  infidels  are  pleased  to  represent  them,  yet  unacquainted 
with  the  discoveries  of  Ilerschell  and  Newton  ;  and,  as  a  necessary 
consequence,  that  their  language  was  the  adequate  medium  of 
conveying  their  imperfect  ideas,  containing  none  of  the  technicali¬ 
ties  invented  by  philosophers  to  mark  modern  scientific  discoveries  ; 
and  that  God  desired  to  convey  to  them  some  religious  instruction, 
through  the  medium  of  language.  Must  we  suppose  it  indispen¬ 
sable  for  this  purpose  that  he  should  use  strange  words,  and  scien¬ 
tific  phrases,  the  meaning  of  which  would  not  be  discovered  for 
thirty-three  hundred  years?  Could  not  Dr.  Alexander  write  a 
sabbath-school  book,  without  filling  it  full  of  such  phrases  as 
“right  ascension,”  “declination,”  “precession  of  the  equinoxes,” 
“radius  vector,”  and  the  like?  Or,  if  some  wiseacre  did  prepare 
such  a  book,  would  it  be  very  useful  to  children  ?  Perhaps  even 
we,  learned  philosophers  of  the  nineteenth  century,  are  not  out  of 
school  yet.  How  many  discoveries  are  yet  to  be  made  in  all  the 


*  Dan.  12 :  S ;  1  Pet.  1 :  10 ;  Eph.  1 :  3. 


2G3 


12 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


sciences :  discoveries  which  will  doubtless  render  our  fancied  per¬ 
fection  as  utterly  childish  to  the  philosophers  of  a  thousand  years 
hence,  as  the  astronomy  of  the  Greeks  seems  to  us  ;  and  demand 
the  use  of  technical  language,  which  would  be  as  unintelligible  to 
us  as  our  scientific  nomenclature  would  have  been  to  Aristotle. 
If  God  may  not  use  popular  speech  in  speaking  to  the  people  of 
any  given  period,  but  must  needs  speak  the  technical  language  of 
perfect  science, — and  if  science  is  now,  and  always  will  be,  of  ne¬ 
cessity,  imperfect, — we  are  led  to  the  sage  conclusion,  that  every 
revelation  from  God  to  man  must  always  be  unintelligible ! 

Does  it  necessarily  follow,  that  because  the  author  of  the  Bible 
uses  the  common  phrases,  “sun  rising,”  and  “sun  setting,”  in  a 
popular  treatise  upon  religion,  that  therefore  he  was  ignorant  of 
the  rotation  of  the  earth,  and  intended  to  teach  that  the  Sun  re¬ 
volved  around  it?  He  is  certainly  under  no  more  obligation  to 
depart  from  the  common  language  of  mankind,  and  introduce  the 
technicalities  of  science  into  such  a  discourse,  than  mankind  in 
general,  and  our  objectors  in  particular,  are  to  do  the  like  in  their 
common  conversation.  Now,  I  demand  to  know  whether  they  are 
aware  that  the  earth's  rotation  on  its  axis  is  the  cause  of  day  and 
night?  But  do  you  ever  hear  any  of  them  use  such  phrases  as 
“earth  rising,”  and  earth  setting?”  But  if  an  infidel's  daily  use 
of  the  phrases,  “sun  rising,”  “sun  setting,”  and  the  like,  does  not 
prove,  either  that  he  is  ignorant  of  the  earth's  rotation  as  the  cause 
of  that  appearance,  or  that  he  intends  to  deceive  the  world  by  those 
phrases,  why  may  not  Almighty  God  be  as  well  informed  and  as 
honest  as  the  infidel,  though  he  also  condescends  to  use  the  com¬ 
mon  language  of  mankind. 

Do  you  ever  hear  astronomers,  in  common  discourse,  use  any 
other  language?  I  suppose  Lieut.  Maury,  and  Herschell,  and  Le- 
verrier  and  Mitchell,  know  a  little  of  the  earth's  rotation  ;  but  they, 
too,  use  the  English  tongue  very  much  like  other  people,  and  speak 
of  sunrise  and  sunset;  yet  nobody  accuses  them  of  believing  in  the 
Ptolemaic  astronomy.  Hear  the  immortal  Kepler,  the  discoverer 
of  the  laws  of  planetary  revolution:  “We  astronomers  do  not  pur¬ 
sue  this  science  with  the  view  of  altering  common  language  ;  but 
we  wish  to  open  the  gates  of  truth,  without  affecting  the  vulgar 
modes  of  speech.  We  say  with  the  common  people,  “The  planets 
stand  still,  or  go  down ;”  “  the  sun  rises,  or  sets ;”  meaning  only 
that  so  the  thing  appears  to  us,  although  it  is  not  truly  so,  as  all 
264 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


13 


astronomers  are  agreed.  How  much  less  should  require  that 
the  Scriptures  of  Divine  Inspiration,  setting  aside  the  common 
modes  of  speech,  should  shape  their  words  according  to  the  model 
of  the  natural  sciences,  and  by  employing  a  dark  and  inappropriate 
phraseology  about  things  which  surpass  the  comprehension  of 
those  whom  it  designs  to  instruct,  perplex  the  simple  people  of 
God,  and  thus  obstruct  its  own  way  towards  the  attainment  of  the 
far  more  exalted  end  to  which  it  aims.” 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  God  not  only  may,  but  must  use  popular 
language  in  addressing  the  people,  in  a  work  not  professedly  sci¬ 
entific  ;  and  that  if  this  popular  language  be  scientifically  incor¬ 
rect,  such  use  of  it  neither  implies  his  ignorance  or  approval  of  the 
error. 

But  it  may  be  worthy  of  enquiry  whether  this  popular  language 
of  mankind,  used  in  the  Bible,  be  scientifically  erroneous.  If  the 
language  be  intended  to  express  an  absolute  reality,  no  doubt  it  is 
erroneous  to  say  the  sun  rises  and  sets;  but  if  it  be  only  intended 
to  describe  an  appearance,  and  the  words  themselves  declare  that 
intention,  it  cannot  be  shown  to  be  false  to  the  fact.  Now,  when 
the  matter  is  critically  investigated,  these  phrases  are  found  to  he 
far  more  accurate  than  those  of  “earth  rising,”  and  “earth  set¬ 
ting,”  which  infidels  say  the  author  of  the  Bible  should  have  used. 
For,  as  up  and  down  have  no  existence  in  nature,  save  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  a  spectator,  and  as  the  earth  is  always  down  with  respect 
to  a  spectator  on  its  surface,  neither  rising  towards  him,  nor  sink¬ 
ing  from  him,  in  reality,  nor  appearing  to  do  so,  unless  in  an  earth¬ 
quake,  the  improved  phrases  are  false,  both  to  the  appearance  of 
things,  and  to  the  cause  of  it.  Whereas,  our  common  speech, 
making  no  pretensions  to  describe  the  causes  of  appearances,  can¬ 
not  contradict  any  scientific  discovery  of  these  causes,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  false  to  the  fact,  while  it  truly  describes  all  that  it 
pretends  to  describe — the  appearance  of  things — to  our  senses. 
And  so,  after  all  the  outcry  raised  against  it  by  sciolists,  the  vulgar 
speech  of  mankind,  used  by  the  Author  of  the  Bible,  must  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  be  philosophical  enough  for  his  purpose,  and  theirs:  at 
least  till  somebody  favors  both  with  a  better. 

Though  we  are  in  no  way  concerned,  then,  to  prove  that  every 
poetical  figure  in  Scripture,  and  every  popular  illustration  taken 
from  nature,  corresponds  to  the  accuracy  of  scientific  investigation, 
before  we  believe  the  Bible  to  be  a  revelation  of  our  dutv  to  God 

265 


14 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


and  man,  yet  it  may  be  worth  while  to  enquire,  further,  whether 
we  really  tind  upon  its  sacred  pages  such  crude  aud  egregious  sci¬ 
entific  errors  as  infidels  allege.  We  have  seen  in  the  last  Tract, 
that  they  are  not  able  to  read  even  its  first  chapter  without  blun¬ 
dering.  Indeed,  they  generally  boast  of  their  ignorance  of  its  con¬ 
tents.  It  is  a  very  good  rule  to  take  them  at  their  word,  and  when 
they  quote  Scripture,  to  take  it  for  granted  that  they  quote  it  wrong, 
unless  you  know  the  contrary.  The  first  thing  for  you  to  do  when 
an  infidel  tells  you  the  Bible  says  so  and  so,  is  to  get  the  book,  and 
see  whether  it  does  or  not.  You  will  generally  find  that  he  has 
either  misquoted  the  words,  or  mistaken  their  meaning,  from  a 
neglect  of  the  context ;  or  perhaps  has  both  misquoted  and  mis¬ 
taken.  Then,  when  you  are  satisfied  of  the  correct  meaning  of  the 
text,  and  he  tells  you  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  discoveries  of  sci¬ 
ence,  the  next  point  is  to  ask  him,  How  do  you  Icnoic  ?  You  will 
find  his  knowledge  of  science  and  scripture  about  equal.  Both 
these  tests  should  be  applied  to  scientific  objections  to  the  Bible, 
as  they  are  all  composed  of  equal  parts  of  Biblical  blunders  and 
philosophical  fallacies. 

In  the  objection  under  consideration,  for  instance,  both  state¬ 
ments  are  wrong.  The  Bible  does  not  represent  the  earth  as  the 
immovable  center  of  the  universe,  or  as  immovable  in  space  at  all. 
It  does  not  represent  the  Sun  and  stars  as  revolving  around  it. 
Nor  are  the  facts  of  astronomy  more  correctly  stated.  It  is  not  the 
Bible,  but  our  objector,  that  is  a  little  behind  the  age  in  his  know¬ 
ledge  of  science. 

If  we  enquire  for  those  texts  of  Scripture  which  represent  the 
earth  as  the  immovable  center  of  the  universe,  we  shall  be  referred 
to  the  figurative  language  of  the  Psalms,  the  book  of  Job,  and  other 
poetical  parts  of  Scripture,  which  speak  of  the  “foundations  of  the 
earth,”  “  the  earth  being  established,”  “  abiding  for  ever,”  and  the 
like,  when  the  slightest  attention  to  the  language  would  show  that 
it  is  intended  to  he  figurative.  The  accumulation  of  metaphors  and 
poetical  images  in  some  of  these  passages,  is  beautiful  and  grand 
in  the  highest  degree  ;  but  none,  save  the  most  stupid  reader, 
would  ever  dream  of  interpreting  them  literally.  Take,  for  in¬ 
stance,  Psalm  104:  1-6,  where,  in  one  line,  the  world  is  described 
as  God’s  house,  with  beams,  and  chambers,  and  foundations ;  but 
in  the  very  next  line  the  figure  is  changed,  and  it  is  viewed  as  an 
infant,  covered  with  the  deep,  as  with  a  garment. 

26G 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


15 


“  Bless  the  Lord,  0  my  soul. 

“  0  Lord  my  God  thou  art  very  great ; 

“  Thou  art  clothed  with  honor  and  majesty: 

“  Who  coverest  thyself  with  light,  as  with  a  garment: 

“  Who  stretchiest  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain : 

“  Who  layeth  the  beams  of  his  chambers  upon  the  waters : 

“  Who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind: 

“  Who  maketh  his  angels  spirits  : 

“His  ministers  a  flaming  fire: 

“  Who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth , 

“  That  it  should  not  be  removed,  for  ever. 

“Thou  coveredst  it  with  the  deep,  as  with  a  garment: 

“  The  waters  stood  above  the  mountains.” 

But  if  any  one  is  so  gross  as  to  insist  on  the  literality  of  such  a 
passage,  and  to  allege  that  it  teaches  the  absolute  immobility  of 
the  earth,  let  him  tell  us  what  sort  of  immobility  the  3d  verse 
teaches,  and  how  a  building  could  be  stable,  the  beams  of  whoso 
chambers  are  laid  upon  the  waters — the  chosen  emblems  of  insta¬ 
bility.  “  He  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas :  he  hath  established  it 
upon  the  floods,”  says  the  same  poet,  in  another  Psalm:  24:  1. 
This,  and  all  other  expressions  quoted  as  declaring  the  immobility 
of  the  earth  in  space ,  are  clearly  proved,  both  by  the  words  used, 
and  the  sense  of  the  context,  to  refer  to  an  entirely  different  idea: 
namely,  its  duration  in  time.  Thus,  Eccl.  1:  4,  “One  generation 
passeth  away,  and  another  cometh  ;  but  the  earth  abideth  for  ever,” 
is  manifestly  contrasting  the  duration  of  earth  with  the  generations 
of  short-lived  men,  and  has  no  reference  to  motion  in  space  at  nil. 

Again,  in  Psalm  119:  89-91,  our  objectors  find  another  Bible 
declaration  of  the  immobility  of  the  earth  in  space: 

“  For  ever,  0  Lord,  thy  word  is  settled  in  heaven  ; 

“  Thy  faithfulness  is  unto  all  generations  ; 

“  Thou  hast  established  the  earth,  and  it  abideth. 

“  They  continue  to  this  day ,  according  to  thine  ordinances.” 

The  same  permanence  is  here  ascribed  to  the  heavens  (to  which, 
as  our  objectors  argue,  the  Bible  ascribes  a  perpetual  revolution)  as 
to  the  earth.  The  next  verse  explains  this  permanence  to  be  con¬ 
tinuance  to  this  day:  durability,  not  immobility.  That  the  word 
establish  does  not  necessarily  imply  fixture,  is  evident  from  its 
application,  in  Prov.  8 :  28 :  “He  established  the  clouds,”  the  most 
fleeting  of  all  things.  Nor  is  the  Hebrew  word,  Jcun  (whence  our 

2G7 


1G 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


English  word,  cunning),  inconsistent  with  motion  ;  else,  the  Psalm¬ 
ist  had  not  said  that  “a  good  man’s  footsteps  are  established  by  the 
Lord.”*  “He  established  my  goings.”  Wise  arrangement  is  the 
idea,  not  permanent  fixture. 

The  same  remarks  apply  to  Psalm  93  :  1, — 9G :  10, — 1  Chron. 
16  :  30,  and  many  other  similar  passages. 

“  The  world  is  established,  that  it  cannot  be  moved  ; 

“  Thy  throne  is  established  of  old: 

“  Thou  art  from  everlasting.” 

Where  the  establishment,  which  is  contrasted  with  the  impossible 
removal,  and  which  explains  its  import,  is  evidently  not  a  local 
fixing  of  some  material  seat,  in  one  place,  but  the  everlasting  dura¬ 
tion  of  God’s  authority.  The  idea  is  not  that  of  position  in  space, 
at  all,  but  continued  duration. 

Space  does  not  allow  us  to  quote  all  the  passages  which  refer  to 
this  subject;  but  after  an  examination  of  every  passage  in  the 
Bible  usually  referred  to  in  this  connection,  and  of  a  multitude  of 
others  bearing  upon  it,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  it  doe3 
not  contain  a  single  text  which  asserts  or  implies  the  immobility 
of  the  earth  in  space.  The  notion  was  drawn  from  the  absurdities 
of  the  Greek  philosophy,  and  the  superstitions  of  Popery,  but  was 
never  gathered  from  the  word  of  God. 

But  it  is  alleged  that  other  passages  of  scripture  do  plainly  and 
unequivocally  express  the  motion  of  the  Sun,  and  his  course  in  a 
circuit;  as,  for  instance,  the  nineteenth  Psalm: 

“  In  them  he  hath  set  a  tabernacle  for  the  Sun, 

“Which  is  as  a  bridegroom  coming  out  of  his  chamber, 

“  And  rejoieeth  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race. 

“  Ilis  going  forth  is  from  the  end  of  heaven, 

“  And  his  circuit  unto  the  ends  of  it.” 

And  again,  in  the  account  of  Joshua’s  miracle,  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  his  book,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  writer  supposed  the 
Sun  to  be  in  motion,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Moon,  for  he  com¬ 
manded  them  both  to  stand  still:  “Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon 
Gibeon,  and  thou  Moon  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.  And  the  Sun 
stood  still,  and  the  Moon  stayed,  until  the  people  had  avenged 
themselves  upon  their  enemies.”  Now,  it  is  said,  if  the  writer 
had  known  what  he  was  about,  he  would  have  known  that  the  Sun 


268 


*  Ps.  40 : 1,  and  37  :  23,  margin. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


IT 


was  already  standing  still,  and  would  have  told  the  earth  to  stop 
its  rotation.  And  if  the  earth  had  obeyed  the  command,  we 
should  never  have  heard  of  the  miracle ;  for,  as  the  earth  rotates 
at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  miles  an  hour,  the  concussion  produced 
by  such  a  stoppage  would  have  projected  Joshua,  and  Israelites, 
and  Amorites,  beyond  the  Moon,  to  pursue  their  quarrel  among 
the  fixed  stars. 

When  we  hear  men  of  some  respectability  bring  forward  such 
stuff,  we  are  constrained  to  wonder,  not  merely  were  they  ever  at 
school,  but  if  they  ever  traveled  in  a  railroad  car,  or  whether  they 
suppose  their  hearers  to  be  so  ignorant  of  the  most  common  facts, 
as  to  believe  that  there  is  no  way  of  bringing  a  carriage  to  a  stand 
but  by  a  sudden  jerk,  or  that  God  is  more  stupid  than  the  brakes¬ 
man  of  an  express  train.  We  will  do  them  the  justice,  however, 
to  say,  that  they  did  not  invent  it,  but  merely  shut  their  eyes,  and 
opened  their  mouths,  and  swallowed  it  for  philosophy,  because  they 
found  it  in  the  writings  of  an  infidel  scoffer,  and  of  a  Neological 
professor  of  theology* — an  edif}ung  example  of  infidel  credulity  ! 

Let  it  be  noticed,  that  in  neither  of  these  texts,  nor  in  any  other 
portion  of  scripture,  does  the  Bible  say  a  single  word  about  the 
revolution  of  the  Sun  round  the  earth ,  as  the  common  center  of  the 
universe ;  on  which,  however,  the  whole  stress  of  the  objection  is 
laid.  The  passages  do  not  prove  what  they  are  adduced  to  prove. 
They  speak  of  the  Sun’s  motion,  and  of  the  Sun’s  orbit,  but  they 
do  not  say  that  the  earth  is  the  center  of  that  orbit.  These  texts, 
then,  do  not  prove  the  author  of  the  Bible  ignorant  of  the  system 
of  the  universe. 

The  objection  is  based  upon  utter  ignorance  of  one  of  the  most 
important  and  best  attested  discoveries  of  modern  astronomy  :  the 
grand  motion  of  the  Sun  and  Solar  System  through  the  regions  of 
space,  and  the  dependence  of  the  rotation  of  all  the  orbs  composing 
it,  upon  that  motion.  It  is  not  the  author  of  the  Bible  who  is  igno¬ 
rant  of  the  discoveries  of  modern  astronomy — when  he  speaks  of  the 
orbit  of  the  Sun,  and  his  race  from  one  end  of  the  heavens  to  the 
other,  and  of  the  need  of  a  miraculous  interposition  to  stop  his 
course  for  a  single  day — but  his  correctors,  who  have  ventured  to 
decry  the  statements  of  a  book  which  commands  the  respect  of 
such  astronomers  as  Ilerschell  and  Rosse,  while  ignorant  of  those 


*  M.  Voltaire;  M.  Cheneviere  ;  Theol.  Essays,  vol.  1,  p.  456. 

2  2G9 


18 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


elements  of  astronomy  which  they  might  have  learned  from  a  peru¬ 
sal  of  the  books  used  by  their  children,  in  our  common  schools. 
For  the  benefit  of  such,  however,  I  will  present  a  brief  explanation 
of  the  grounds  upon  which  astronomers  are  as  universally  agreed 
upon  the  belief  of  the  Sun’s  motion  around  a  center  of  the  firma¬ 
ment,  as  they  are  upon  the  belief  of  the  revolution  of  the  earth 
round  the  Sun. 

When  you  are  passing  in  a  carriage,  at  night,  through  the  street 
of  a  city  lighted  up  by  gas-lamps  in  the  streets,  and  lights  irregu¬ 
larly  dispersed  in  the  windows,  or  passing  in  a  ferry-boat,  from 
one  such  city  to  another,  at  a  short  distance  from  it,  you  observe 
that  the  lights  which  you  are  leaving  appear  to  draw  closer  and 
closer  together,  while  those  towards  which  you  are  approaching 
widen-  out,  and  seem  to  separate  from  each  other.  If  the  night 
were  perfectly  dark,  so  that  you  could  see  nothing  but  the  lights, 
you  could  certainly  know  not  only  that  you  were  in  motion,  but 
also  to  what  point  you  were  moving,  by  carefully  watching  their 
appearances.  So,  if  all  the  fixed  stars  were  absolutely  fixed,  and 
the  Sun  and  planets,  including  our  earth,  were  moving  in  any  di¬ 
rection — say  to  the  north — then  the  stars  towards  which  we  were 
moving  would  seem  to  widen  out  from  each  other,  and  those  which 
we  were  leaving  would  seem  to  close  up  ;  so  that  the  space  which 
appeared  between  any  two  stars  in  the  south,  in  a  correct  map  of 
the  heavens,  a  hundred  years  ago,  would  be  smaller,  and  that 
between  any  two  stars  in  the  north  would  be  larger,  than  the  space 
between  the  same  stars  upon  a  correct  map  now.  Now,  such 
changes  in  the  apparent  positions  of  stars  are  actually  observed. 
The  stars  do  not  appear  in  the  same  places  now  as  they  did  a  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago. 

The  fixed  stars,  then,  are  either  drifting  past  our  Solar  System, 
which  alone  remains  fixed  ;  or,  the  fixed  stars  are  all  actually  at 
rest,  and  our  Sun  is  drifting  through  them ;  or,  our  Solar  System 
and  the  so  called  fixed  stars  are  both  in  motion.  One  or  other  of 
these  suppositions  must  be  the  fact.  The  first  is  simply  the  old 
Ptolemaic  absurdity,  only  transferring  the  center  of  the  universe  to 
the  Sun.  The  second  is  contrary  to  the  observed  fact,  that  multi¬ 
tudes  of  the  stars  which  were  supposed  to  be  fixed,  are  actually 
revolving  around  each  other,  in  systems  of  double,  triple,  and  mul¬ 
tiple  suns.  And  both  are  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of  gravi¬ 
tation  :  for,  as  every  particle  of  matter  attracts  every  other,  directly 
270 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


19 


as  the  mass,  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance,  if  any  one 
particle  of  matter  in  the  universe  is  in  motion,  the  square  of  its 
distance  from  every  other  particle  varies,  and  its  attraction  is  in¬ 
creased  in  one  direction,  and  diminished  in  another;  and  so  every 
particle  of  matter  in  free  space,  as  far  as  the  force  of  gravitation 
extends,  will  be  put  in  motion  too.  But  our  earth,  and  the  planets, 
and  the  double  and  triple  stars,  are  in  motion,  and  the  law  of  grav¬ 
itation  extends  to  every  known  part  of  the  universe ;  therefore, 
every  known  particle  of  matter  in  the  universe  is  in  motion  too,  our 
Sun  included. 

The  third  supposition,  then,  is  most  indisputably  true  :  our  Solar 
System,  and  all  the  heavenly  bodies,  are  in  motion.  To  this  con¬ 
clusion  all  the  observed  facts  conform.  The  Bible  does  say  that 
the  Sun  moves,  and  moves  in  a  curve.  All  mathematicians  prove 
that  it  must  of  necessity  do  so.  All  astronomers  assert  that  it  does 
so.  The  unanimous  verdict  of  the  scientific  world  is  thus  rendered 
by  Nicholl:  “  As  to  the  subject  itself,  the  grand  motion  of  the  Sun, 
as  well  as  its  'present  direction,  must  be  received  now  as  an  estab¬ 
lished  doctrine  of  Astronomy ”  *  But  the  discovery  was  antici¬ 
pated,  three  thousand  years  ago,  by  the  Author  of  the  Bible. 

But,  as  will  readily  be  perceived,  the  difficulty  of  determining 
either  the  direction  or  the  rate  of  this  motion  is  immensely  in¬ 
creased  in  this  case;  for  we  are  now  not  like  persons  riding  in  a 
carriage,  watching  the  fixed  lights  in  the  street  to  determine  our 
direction  and  rate  of  progress  ;  but  we  are  watching  the  lamps  of  a 
multitude  of  carriages,  moving  at  various  distances,  and  with  va¬ 
rious  velocities,  and,  for  any  thing  we  can  tell  at  first  sight,  in 
various  directions.  We  are  on  board  a  steamer,  and  are  watching 
the  lights  of  a  multitude  of  other  steamers,  also  in  motion  ;  and  it 
is  not  easy  to  find  out,  in  the  darkness,  how  either  they  or  we  are 
going.  If  each  were  pursuing  its  own  independent  course,  without 
any  common  object  or  destination,  the  confusion  would  be  so  great 
that  we  could  learn  nothing  of  the  rate  or  direction  either  of  our 
own  motion  or  theirs. 

But  astronomers  are  not  content  to  believe  that  the  universe  is 
governed  by  accident.  The  whole  science  is  based  upon  the  as- 


*  Humboldt’s  Cosmos,  vol.  1,  p.  139;  Herschell’s  Outlines,  380;  Kendall’s  Urano¬ 
graphy,  2C5. 

f  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  9th  ed.,  p.  252. 


271 


20 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


sumption,  that  a  presiding  mind  has  impressed  the  stamp  of  order 
and  regularity  upon  the  whole  cosmos.  They  are  deeply  convinced 
that  God’s  law  extends  to  all  God’s  creation:  that  all  his  works 
display  his  intelligence,  as  well  as  his  power,  and  proceed  accord¬ 
ing  to  a  wise  plan.  Having  seen  that  all  the  stellar  motions  pre¬ 
viously  known  are  orderly  motions,  in  circular  or  elliptical  orbits, 
and  that  the  most  of  the  solid  bodies  belonging  to  our  own  system 
revolve  in  one  direction,  they  reasoned  from  analogy  that  this 
might  be  the  case  with  the  Sun  and  fixed  stars,  and  went  to  work 
with  great  diligence,  to  see  whether  it  was  or  not;  and,  by  com¬ 
paring  a  great  multitude  of  observations,  ancient  and  modern, 
made  both  in  the  northern  and  southern  hemisphere,  and  on  all 
sorts  of  stars,  they  have  come  to  the  unanimous  conclusion,  that 
our  own  Sun,  and  all  the  bodies  of  the  Solar  System,  are  flying 
northward,  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  miles 
a  year — a  thousand  times  faster  than  a  railway  train — towards  the 
constellation  Hercules,  in  li.  A.  259°  Dec.  35°. 

Further,  as  the  direction  of  this  motion  is  slowly  and  regularly 
changing,  just  as  the  direction  of  the  head  of  a  steamer  in  wearing, 
or  of  a  railway  train  running  a  curve,  it  is  certain  that  the  Sun  is 
moving,  not  in  a  straight  line,  but  in  a  curve.  The  revolution  of 
the  Sun  in  such  an  orbit  was  known  to  the  Author  of  the  Bible 
when  he  wrote,  “  his  circuit  is  to  the  end  of  heaven.”  The  direc¬ 
tion  of  the  circumference  of  a  circle  being  known,  that  of  its  center 
can  be  found  ;  for  the  radius  is  always  a  tangent  to  the  circumfer¬ 
ence,  and  the  intersection  of  two  of  these  radii  will  be  the  center; 
so  that,  if  we  certainly  knew  the  Sun’s  orbit  to  be  circular,  or  near¬ 
ly  so,  we  could  calculate  the  center.  But  as  we  do  not  certainly 
know  its  form,  we  cannot  certainly  calculate  the  center:  we  can 
only  come  near  it.  And  as  we  know  that  the  line  which  connects 
the  circumference  with  the  center  of  the  Sun’s  orbit,  runs  through 
the  group  of  stars  known  as  the  Pleiades,  or  the  Cluster;  and  as 
all  the  stars  along  that  line  seem  to  move  in  the  same  direction — a 
direction  different  from  that  of  the  stars  in  other  regions,  just  as 
they  must  do  if  they  and  we  were  revolving  around  that  group — 
Argelander  and  others  have  concluded,  with  a  high  degree  of 
probability,  that  the  grand  center  around  which  the  Sun  and  our 
firmament  revolve,  is  that  constellation  which  the  Author  of  the 
Bible,  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago,  called  kyme — the  pivot. 

It  would  require  a  greater  knowledge  of  electro-magnetism  than 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


21 


Iftv  «t  of  my  readers  possess,  to  explain  the  connection  of  the  earth’s 
rotation  with  the  Sun’s  grand  movement.  I  will  merely  state  the 
facts.  Electro-magnetism  is  induced  by  friction.  The  regions  of 
space  are  not  empty,  but  filled  with  an  ether,  whose  undulations 
produce  light;  and  this  ether  is  sufficiently  dense  to  retard  the 
motions  of  comets.  The  friction  produced  by  the  passage  of  the 
Sun  and  Solar  System  through  this  ether,  at  the  rate  of  20,000 
miles  an  hour,  must  be  immense,  and  is  one  source  of  electricity, 
and  the  principal  source  of  electro-magnetism.  This  kind  of  elec¬ 
tricity  differs  from  the  other  kinds,  in  that  its  action  is  always  at 
right  angles  to  the  current ,  and  tends  to  produce  rotation  in  any 
wheel ,  cylinder,  or  sphere,  along  ivhose  axis  it  flows*  The  Sun, 
and  all  the  planets  traveling  in  the  direction  of  their  poles,  the 
current  is  of  course  in  the  direction  of  the  axis ;  and  the  result  is, 
that  while  the  Sun  moves  along  his  grand  course,  he  and  all  the 
bodies  of  the  system  will  rotate,  by  the  influence  of  the  electro¬ 
magnetism  generated  by  that  motion  ;  and  if  he  stops,  his  and  their 
rotation  stops  too.  Day  and  night  on  earth  are  produced  by  the 
Sun’s  motion  causing  the  earth’s  rotation.  You  can  see  the  prin¬ 
ciple  illustrated  by  the  child,  who  runs  along  the  street  with  his 
windmill,  to  create  a  current,  which  will  make  it  revolve.  The 
Author  of  the  Bible  made  no  mistake  when,  desiring  to  lengthen 
the  day,  he  commanded  the  Sun  to  stand  still.  It  is  not  the 
Creator,  but  his  correctors,  who  are  ignorant  of  the  mechanism  of 
the  universe. 

Thus,  these  long-misunderstood  and  much-assailed  Scriptures 
are  not  only  vindicated,  but  far  more  than  vindicated,  by  the  prog¬ 
ress  of  astronomical  discovery.  It  not  only  proves  the  language 
of  the  Bible  to  be  correct:  it  assures  us  that  it  is  divine.  The 
same  hand  which  formed  the  stars  to  guide  the  simple  peasant  to 
his  dwelling,  at  the  close  of  day,  and  to  lead  the  mighty  intellects 
of  Newton  and  of  Ilerschell  among  the  mysteries  of  the  universe, 
formed  those  expressions  which,  to  the  peasant’s  eye,  describe  the 
apparent  reality,  and,  to  the  astronomer’s  reason,  demonstrate  the 
reality  of  the  appearance  of  the  heavens,  and  are  thus,  alike  to 
peasant  and  philosopher,  the  oracles  of  God.  Here  we  have  astro¬ 
nomical  truth  not  discovered  by  astronomers,  but  revealed  by 


*  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  171,  337,  315 ;  Architecture  of  the  Heavens, 
286. 


18 


2.73 


22 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


prophets — scientific  discovery,  in  advance  of  science — predictions 
of  the  future  progress  of  the  human  intellect,  no  less  than  revela¬ 
tions  of  the  existing  motions  of  the  stars.  He  who  wrote  these 
oracles  knew  that  the  creatures  to  whom  he  gave  them  would  one 
day  unfold  their  hidden  meaning  (else  he  had  not  so  written  them), 
and,  in  the  light  of  scientific  discovery,  see  them  to  he  as  truly 
divine  predictions  of  the  advance  of  science,  as  the  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  read  among  the  ruins  of  Thebes  or  Babylon, 
are  seen  to  be  predictions  of  the  ruin  of  empires.  Man’s  discove¬ 
ries  fade  into  insignificance  in  the  presence  of  such  unfolding  mys¬ 
teries  ;  and  we  are  led  to  our  Bibles,  with  the  prayer,  “  open  mine 
eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law.” 

4.  The  ancient  charter  of  the  Church  was  written  in  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  one  of  the  most  recent  astronomical  discoveries,  thirty-six 
hundred  years  before  Herschell  and  Itosse  enabled  us  to  under¬ 
stand  its  full  significance:  “  He  brought  him  forth  abroad,  and  said 
unto  him,  ‘  Look  now  to  heaven,  a7id  count  the  stars,  if  thou  he  able 
to  number  them.’  And  he  said  unto  him,  1  So  shall  thy  seed  be’  ”  * 

The  scenery  was  well  calculated  to  impress  Abraham’s  mind 
with  a  sense  of  the  ability  of  Christ  to  fulfil  a  very  glorious  prom¬ 
ise,  by  a  very  improbable  event;  but  the  illustration  was  as  well 
calculated  as  the  promise  to  test  the  character  of  that  faith  which 
takes  God’s  word  as  sufficient  evidence  of  things  not  seen ;  for,  if 
the  promise  was  a  trying  test  of  faith,  so  was  the  illustration. 
Before  this,  God  had  promised  that  his  seed  should  be  as  the  dust 
of  the  earth  ;  and  afterwards  he  declared  it  should  be  as  the  sand 
of  the  sea  shore:  the  well  known  symbol  of  a  multitude  beyond  all 
power  of  calculation.  To  couple  the  stars  of  heaven  with  the  sand 
upon  the  sea  shore,  in  any  such  connection  as  to  imply  that  the 
stars  too  were  innumerable,  or  that  their  number  came  within  any 
degree  of  comparison  with  the  ocean  sands,  must  have  seemed  to 
Abraham  in  the  highest  degree  mysterious,  even  as  it  has  appeared 
to  scoffers,  in  modern  times,  utterly  ridiculous  ;  for,  though  the 
first  glance  at  the  sky  conveys  the  impression  that  the  stars  are 
really  innumerable,  the  investigations  of  our  imperfect  astronomy 
seem  to  assure  us  that  this  is  by  no  means  the  case.  And,  as  the 
patriarch  sat,  night  after  night,  at  his  tent  door,  and,  in  obedience 


274 


*  Geo.  15:5. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


23 


to  the  command  of  Christ,  counted  the  stars,  and  made  such  a 
catalogue  of  them  as  his  Chaldean  preceptors  had  used,  he  would 
very  speedily  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  so  far  as  he  could  see, 
they  were  by  no  means  innumerable;  for  the  catalogue  of  Hippar¬ 
chus  reckons  only  102G  as  visible  to  one  observer,  and  the  whole 
number  visible  in  both  hemispheres  by  the  naked  eye  does  not 
exceed  5000.*  And  even  if  we  suppose,  what  is  very  probable,  that 
these  old  patriarchs  had  better  eyes,  as  we  know  they  had  a  clearer 
sky,  than  modern  western  observers,  and  that  Abraham  saw  the 
moons  of  Jupiter  and  stars  as  small,  still  the  number  would  not 
seem  in  the  least  degree  comparable  with  the  number  of  the  sands 
upon  the  sea-shore — whereof  a  million  are  contained  in  a  cubic 
inch,f  a  number  greater  than  the  population  of  the  globe  in  a 
square  foot,  while  the  sum  total  of  the  human  race,  from  Adam  to 
this  hour,  would  not  approach  to  the  aggregate  of  the  sands  of  a 
single  mile — for,  though  the  stars  of  a  size  too  small  to  be  visible 
to  our  eyes,  are  much  more  numerous  than  the  larger  stars,  yet 
even  up  to  the  range  of  view  possessed  by  ordinary  telescopes,  they 
are  by  no  means  innumerable,  nor  nearly  so.  In  fact,  they  are 
counted  and  registered,  and  the  number  of  the  stars  of  the  9th 
magnitude,  which  are  four  times  as  distant  as  the  most  distant  vis¬ 
ible  to  our  eyes — so  distant  that  their  light  is  58G  years  in  travel¬ 
ing  towards  us  —  is  declared  to  be  exactly  37,739.  Abraham’s 
sense  and  Abraham’s  faith  must  have  had  many  a  conflict  on  this 
promise,  as  the  faith  and  the  sense  of  many  of  his  children,  espe¬ 
cially  the  scientific  portion  of  them,  have  since,  when  reading  such 
portions  as  this  and  those  other  scriptures  which  represent  it  as  an 
achievement  of  Omniscience,  that  “  he  counts  the  number  of  the 
stars,  and  calleth  them  all  by  their  names.”  t  It  is  indeed  re¬ 
markable  how  God  delights  to  test  the  faith  of  his  people,  and 
stumble  the  pride  of  fools,  by  presenting  this  mysterious  truth  of 
the  innumerable  multitude  of  the  stars,  in  every  announcement  of 
the  wonderful  works  of  him  who  is  perfect  in  wisdom.  Infant 
astronomy  stretched  out  her  hands  to  catch  the  stars,  and  count 
them.  Many  a  proud  infidel  wondered  that  Moses  could  be  so  silly 
as  to  suppose  he  could  not  count  the  stars,  and  the  believer  often 


*  Nieholl’s  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  32. 

f  Ehrenberg  computes  that  there  are  are  41,000,000  of  the  shells  of  animalculae  in  a 
tubic  inch  of  rotten  stone. 
x  Ps.  147 :  4. 


24 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


wondered  what  these  words  could  mean.  But  faith  rests  in  the 
persuasion  of  two  great  truths :  “  God  is  very  wise,”  and  “  I  am 
very  ignorant.” 

The  increase  of  knowledge,  by  widening  the  boundaries  of  our 
ignorance,  seemed  for  a  time  to  render  the  difficulty  even  greater. 
The  increased  power  of  Herschell’s  telescopes,  and  his  discovery 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Milky  Way,  mark  an  era  in  the  progress 
of  astronomy,  and  enlarge  our  views  of  the  extent  of  the  universe, 
to  an  extent  inconceivable  by  those  who  have  not  studied  the  sci¬ 
ence.  Where  we  see  only  a  faint  whitish  cloud  stretching  across 
the  sky,  Herschell’s  telescope  disclosed  a  vast  bed  of  stars.  At 
one  time  he  counted  588  stars  in  the  field  of  his  telescope.  In  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  116,000  passed  before  his  eye.  In  another 
portion,  he  found  331,000  stars,  in  a  single  cluster.*  He  found 
the  whole  structure  of  that  vast  luminous  cloud  which  spans  the 
sky,  “to  consist  entirely  of  stars,  scattered  l>y  millions,  like  glitter¬ 
ing  dust ,  on  the  back  ground  of  the  general  heavens.” 

Yet  still  it  was  not  supposed  to  be  at  all  impossible  to  estimate 
their  numbers.  Even  this  distinguished  astronomer,  a  few  years 
ago,  computed  it  at  eight  or  ten  millions.  Schroeter  allowed 
twenty  degrees  of  it  to  pass  before  him,  and  withdrew  from  the 
majestic  spectacle,  exclaiming,  “What  Omnipotence!”  He  calcu¬ 
lated,  however,  that  the  number  of  the  stars  visible  through  one  of 
the  best  telescopes  in  Europe,  in  1840,  was  12,000,000 — a  number 
equalled  by  a  single  generation  of  Abraham's  descendants — far 
below  the  power  of  computation,  and  utterly  insignificant,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

Had  our  powers  of  observation  stopped  here,  the  great  promise 
must  still  have  seemed  as  mysterious  to  the  Astronomer,  as  it  once 
seemed  to  the  Patriarch.  But  if  either  the  Father  of  the  Faithful, 
or  the  Father  of  Siderial  Astronomy,  had  deluded  himself  with  the 
notion,  that  he  fully  comprehended  either  the  words  or  the  works 
of  him  who  is  wonderful  in  counsel,  and  excellent  in  working,  and 
argued  thence  that,  because  the  revealed  words  and  the  visible 
works  seemed  not  to  correspond,  they  were  really  contradictory, 
he  would  have  committed  the  blunder  of  modern  infidels,  who 
assume  that  they  know  every  thing,  and  that  as  God's  knowledge 
cannot  be  any  greater  than  theirs,  every  scripture  which  their 


27.6 


*  Dick’s  Siderial  Heavens,  59 ;  Ilerschell’s  Outlines. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


25 


science  cannot  comprehend  must  be  erroneous.  The  grandest 
truths,  imperfectly  perceived  in  the  twilight  of  incipient  science, 
serve  as  stumbling-blocks  for  conceited  speculators,  as  well  as  land¬ 
marks  of  the  boundaries  of  knowledge  to  true  philosophers,  who 
■will  ever  imbibe  the  spirit  of  Newton’s  celebrated  saying :  “  I  seem 
to  myself  like  a  child  gathering  pebbles  on  the  shore,  while  the 
great  ocean  of  knowledge  lies  unexplored  before  me ;”  or  the  pro¬ 
found  remark  of  Humboldt:  “What  is  seen  does  not  exhaust  that 
■which  is  perceptible.” 

But  the  progress  of  science  was  not  destined  merely  to  coast  the 
shore  of  this  oceau.  In  1845,  Lord  Rosse,  and  a,  band  of  accom¬ 
plished  astronomers,  commenced  a  voyage  through  the  immensities, 
with  a  telescope  which  has  enlarged  our  view  of  the  visible  uni¬ 
verse  to  125,000,000  times  the  extent  before  perceived,  and  dis¬ 
played  far  more  accurately  the  real  form  and  nature  of  objects 
previously  seen.  Ilersehell’s  researches  into  the  Architecture  of 
the  Heavens,  which  have  justly  rendered  his  name  immortal  as  the 
science  he  illustrated,  had  revealed  the  existence  of  great  numbers 
of  nebulce — clouds  of  light — faint,  yet  distinct.  lie  supposed  many 
of  these  to  consist  of  a  luminous  fluid,  pretty  near  to  us — at  least, 
comparatively  so  ;  for  to  believe  that  they  were  stars,  so  far  away 
as  to  be  severally  invisible  in  his  forty  feet  telescope,  while  yet 
several  of  these  clouds  are  distinctly  seen  by  the  naked  eye,  in¬ 
volved  the  belief  of  distance  so  astounding,  and  of  multitudes  so 
incredible,  and  of  a  degree  of  closeness  of  the  several  stars  so  un¬ 
paralleled  by  any  thing  which  even  he  had  observed,  that  his  im¬ 
agination  and  reason  failed  to  meet  the  requirements  of  such  a 
problem.  The  supposition  was,  however,  thrown  out  by  this  gigan¬ 
tic  intellect,  that  these  clouds  might  be  firmaments:  that  the  Bible 
word  heavens  might  be  literally  plural ;  and  more  than  that,  he 
labored  in  the  accumulation  of  facts  -which  tended  to  confirm  it. 
He  disclosed  the  fact,  that  several  of  these  apparent  clouds,  which, 
to  very  excellent  telescopes,  displayed  only  a  larger  surface  of 
cloudy  matter,  did,  in  the  reflector  of  his  largest  telescope,  display 
themselves  in  their  true  character,  as  globular  clusters,  consisting 
of  innumerable  multitudes  of  glorious  stars ;  and,  moreover,  that, 
stretching  away  far  beyond  star,  or  Milky  Way,  or  nebulae,  he  had 
seen,  in  some  parts  of  the  heavens,  “a  stippling,”  or  uniform 
dotting  of  the  field  of  view,  by  points  of  light  too  small  to  admit 
of  any  one  being  steadily  or  fixedly  examined,  and  too  numerous 

3  277 


26 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


for  counting,  were  it  possible  so  to  view  them  !  What  are  these  I 
Millions  upon  millions  of  years  must  have  elapsed  ere  that  faint 
light  could  reach  our  globe,  from  those  profundities  of  space, 
though  it  travels  like  the  lightning’s  flash.  If  they  are  stars,  the 
sands  of  the  sea-shore  are  as  inferior  in  numbers  as  the  surface  of 
earth  is  inferior  in  dimensions  to  the  arch  of  Heaven.  But  if 
these  faint  dots  and  stipplings  are  not  single  stars ! — if  they  are 
star-clouds — galaxies — firmaments,  like  our  Milky  Way — our  in¬ 
finity  is  multiplied  by  millions  upon  millions  !  Imagination  pants, 
reason  grows  dizzy,  arithmetic  fails  to  fathom,  and  human  eyes 
fear  to  look  into  the  abyss.  No  wonder  that  this  profound  astrono¬ 
mer,  when  a  glimpse  of  infinity  flashed  on  his  eye,  retired  from 
the  telescope,  trembing  in  every  nerve,  afraid  to  behold. 

And  yet  this  astounding  supposition  is  a  literal  truth ;  and  the 
light  of  those  suns,  whose  twilight  thus  bowed  down  that  mighty 
intellect  in  reverent  adoration,  now  shines  before  human  eyes  in 
all  its  noon-day  refulgence.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these 
nebulae — one  which  is  visible  to  a  good  eye  in  the  belt  of  Orion — • 
lias  been  disclosed  to  the  observers  at  Parsontown  as  a  firmament; 
and  minute  points,  scarce  perceptible  to  common  telescopes,  blaze 
forth  as  magnificent  clusters  of  glorious  stars,  so  close  and  crowded, 
that  no  figure  can  adequately  describe  them,  save  the  twin  symbol 
of  the  promise,  “the  sand  by  the  sea-shore,”  or  “the  dust  of  the 
earth.”  “  There  is  a  minute  point,  near  Polaris,”  says  Nicholl, 
“  so  minute,  that  it  requires  a  good  telescope  to  discern  its  being. 
I  have  seen  it  as  represented  by  a  good  mirror,  blazing  like  a 
star  of  the  first  magnitude;  and  though  examined  by  a  potent 
microscope,  clear  and  definite  as  the  distinctest  of  these  our 
nearest  orbs,  when  beheld  through  an  atmosphere  not  disturbed. 
Nay,  through  distances  of  an  order  I  shall  scarcely  name,  I  have 
seen  a  mass  of  orbs  compressed  and  brilliant,  so  that  each  touched 
on  each  other,  like  the  separate  grains  of  a  handful  of  sand,  and 
yet  there  seemed  no  melting  or  fusion  of  any  one  of  the  points 
into  the  surrounding  mass.  Each  sparkled  individually  its  light 
pure  and  apart,  like  that  of  any  constituent  of  the  cluster  of  the 
Pleiades.”  * 

“  The  larger  and  nearer  masses  are  seen  with  sufficient  distinct¬ 
ness  to  reveal  the  grand  fact  decisive  of  their  character,  viz. :  that 


27S 


*  Architecture  of  the  HeavecS,  62. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


27 


they  consist  of  multitudes  of  closely  related  orbs,  forming  an  inde¬ 
pendent  system.  In  other  cases  we  find  the  individual  stars  by 
no  means  so  clearly  defined.  Through  effect,  in  all  probability,  of 
distance,  the  intervals  between  them  appear  much  less,  the  shining 
points  themselves  being  also  fainter ;  while  the  masses  still  further 
off  may  be  best  likened  to  a  handful  of  golden  sand ,  or,  as  it  is 
aptly  tei'med ,  star- dust ;  beyond  which  no  stars,  or  any  vestige  of 
them,  are  seen,  but  only  a  patch  or  streak  of  milky  light,  similar  to 
the  unresolved  portions  of  our  surrounding  zone.”*  . 

To  say,  then,  that  the  stars  of  the  sky  are  actually  innumerable, 
is  only  a  cold  statement  of  the  plainest  fact.  Hear  it  in  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  one  privileged  to  behold  the  glories  of  one  out  of  the 
thousands  of  similar  firmaments:  “The  mottled  region  forming 
the  lighter  part  of  the  mass  (the  nebula  in  Orion)  is  a  very  blaze 
of  stars.  But  that  stellar  creation,  now  that  we  are  freed  from  all 
dubiety  concerning  the  significance  of  those  hazes  that  float  num¬ 
berless  in  space,  how  glorious,  how  endless !  Behold,  amid  that 
limitless  ocean,  every  speck,  however  remote  or  dim :  a  noble 
galaxy.  Lustrous  they  are,  too:  in  manifold  instances  beyond  all 
neighboring  reality — beyond  the  loftiest  dream  which  ever  exer¬ 
cised  the  imagination.  The  great  cluster  in  Hercules  has  long 
dazzled  the  heart  with  its  splendors,  but  we  have  learned  now  that 
among  circular  and  compact  galaxies,  a  class  to  which  the  nebu¬ 
lous  stars  belong,  there  are  multitudes  which  infinitely  surpass  it 
— nay,  that  schemes  of  being  rise  above  it,  sun  becoming  nearer  to 
sun,  until  their  skies  must  be  one  blaze  of  light — a  throng  of  burn¬ 
ing  activities !  But,  far  aloft  stands  Orion,  the  pre-eminent  glory 
and  wonder  of  the  starry  universe!  Judged  by  the  only  criticism 
yet  applicable,  it  is  perhaps  so  remote  that  its  light  does  not  reach 
us  in  less  than  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  years  ;  and  as  at  the  same 
time  it  occupies  so  large  an  apparent  portion  of  the  heavens,  how 
stupendous  must  be  the  extent  of  the  nebula.  It  would  sccnj 
almost  as  if  all  the  other  clusters  hitherto  gaged  were  collected  and 
compressed  into  one,  they  would  not  surpass  this  mighty  group,  in 
which  every  wisp — every  wnnlde — is  a  sand-heap  of  stars.  There 
are  cases  in  which,  though  Imagination  has  quailed,  Reason  may 
still  adventure  enquiry,  and  prolong  its  speculations  ;  but  at  times 
wc  are  brought  to  a  limit  across  which  no  human  faculty  has  the 


*  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  64. 


279 


28 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


strength  to  penetrate,  and  where,  as  now,  at  the  very  footstool  of 
the  secret  Throne,  we  can  only  bend  our  heads,  and  silently  adore. 
And  from  the  inner  Adyta — the  invisible  shrine  of  what  alone  is 
and  endures — a  voice  is  heard: 

“  Hast  thou  an  arm  like  God  ? 

“  Canst  thou  thunder  with  a  voice  like  him? 

“  Canst  thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades, 

“  Or  loosen  the  bands  of  Orion  ? 

“Canst. thou  bring  forth  Mazzaroth  in  his  seasons? 

“Canst  thou  guide  Arcturus  and  his  sons?* 

He  telleth  the  number  of  the  stars : 

“He  calleth  them  all  by  their  names. 

“Great  is  our  Lord,  and  of  great  power; 

“  His  understanding  is  infinite.”  f 

Thus,  nobly  does  Science  vindicate  Scripture,  and  display  the 
wisdom  and  power  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  whose  kingdom  extends 
through  all  space,  and  endures  through  all  duration.  He  who 
called  these  countless  hosts  of  glorious  orbs  into  being,  is  abun¬ 
dantly  able  to  multiply  to  an  equally  incalculable  number,  the 
humble  sands  which  line  the  oceans  of  terrestrial  grace:  the  bril¬ 
liant  stars  which  shall  yet  adorn  the  heavens  of  celestial  glory. 
All,  of  every  nation,  who  shall  partake  of  Abraham's  faith,  are 
Abraham’s  children.  They  are  Christ’s,  and  so  Abraham’s  seed, 
and  heirs,  according  to  this  promise. $  When  the  great  multitude, 
which  no  man  can  number,  out  of  every  nation,  and  tongue,  and 
people,  stand  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  cause  the  many  man¬ 
sions  of  our  Father’s  house  to  re-echo  the  shout,  “  Salvation  to  our 
God  which  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  to  the  Lamb,”  the  answering 
hallelujah’s  of  the  most  distant  orbs  shall  expound  the  purport  of 
that  solemn  oath  to  Abraham  and  Abraham’s  seed :  “  By  myself 
have  I  sworn,  saith  the  Lord,  because  thou  hast  done  this  thing, 
and  hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son,  from  me;  that  in 
blessing  I  will  bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thy 
seed ,  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven ,  and  as  the  sand  which  is  upon  the 
sea-shored ’  $ 

5.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  mysteries  of  the  distant  heavens, 
or  of  those  future  glories  of  the  redeemed  which  the  Bible  employs 

*  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  144. 
t  Joh,  38  :  31.  Ps.  147  :  4. 

280 


x  Gen.  22 :  10. 
g  Gal.  iii,  14:  29. 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


29 


them  to  symbolize ,  will  ever  be  fully  explored  by  man,  or  adequately 
apprehended  in  the  present  state  of  being.  But  it  is  most  certain 
that  God  would  not  have  employed  the  mysteries  of  astronomy  so 
frequently  as  the  symbols  of  the  mysteries  of  the  glory  to  be  re¬ 
vealed,  had  there  not  been  some  correspondence  between  the  things 
which  eye  hath  not  seen,  and  these  patterns  shown  in  the  mount. 
So  habitual,  indeed,  is  the  scripture  use  of  these  visible  heavens  as 
the  types  of  all  that  is  exalted,  pure,  cheering,  and  glorious,  that, 
to  most  Christians,  the  word  has  lost  its  primary  meaning,  and  the 
idea  first  suggested  to  their  minds  by  the  word  heaven  is,  that  of 
future  glory;  yet  their  views  of  the  locality  and  physical  adorn¬ 
ments  of  the  many  mansions  of  their  Father’s  house,  are  dim  and 
shadowy,  just  because  they  do  not  acquaint  themselves  sufficiently 
with  the  Divine  descriptions  in  the  Bible,  and  the  Divine  illustra¬ 
tions  in  the  sky.  The  Bible  would  be  better  understood  were  the 
heavens  better  explored.  “I  go,”  said  Jesus,  “to  prepare  a  place 
for  you.”  The  bodies  of  the  saints,  raised  on  the  resurrection 
morn,  will  need  a  place  on  which  to  stand.  The  body  of  the  Lord, 
which  his  disciples  handled,  and  “saw  that  a  spirit  had  not  flesh 
and  bones,  as  they  saw  him  have,”  is  now  resident  in  a  place. 
Where  lie  is,  there  shall  his  people  be  also.  Why,  then,  when  the 
Bible  employs  all  that  is  beauteous  in  earth,  and  glorious  in 
heaven,  to  describe  the  adornments  of  the  palace  of  the  King  of 
kings,  should  we  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  power  and  wisdom  of 
God  are  not  exhausted  in  this  little  earth  of  ours,  but  that  other 
worlds  may  as  far  transcend  ours  in  glory,  as  many  of  them  do  in 
magnitude? — or,  to  allow  that  the  glorious  visions  of  Ezekiel  and 
John  were  not  views  of  nonentities,  or  mere  visions  of  clouds, 
or  of  some  incomprehensible  symbols  of  more  incomprehensible 
spiritualities,  but  actual  views  of  the  existing  glories  of  some 
portion  of  the  universe,  presented  to  us  as  vividly  as  the  dullness 
of  our  minds  and  the  earthliness  of  our  speech  will  permit?  It  is 
certain  that  the  recent  progress  of  astronomical  discovery  has  re¬ 
vealed  celestial  scenery  which  illustrates  some  of  the  most  myste¬ 
rious  of  these  visions. 

It  has  long  been  known,  that  “one  star  differeth  from  another 
star  in  glory,”  and  that  the  orbs  of  heaven  shine  with  various 
colors.  Sirius  is  white,  Arcturus  red,  and  Procvon  yellow.  The 
telescope  shows  all  the  smaller  stars  in  various  colors.  Under  the 
clear  skies  of  Syria  their  brilliance  is  vastly  greater  than  in  our 

281 


30 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


climate.  “  One  star  shines  like  a  ruby,  another  as  an  emerald , 
and  the  whole  heavens  sparkle  as  with  various  gems.”  *  But  the 
discovery  of  the  double  and  triple  stars  has  added  a  new  harmony 
of  colors  to  these  coronets  of  celestial  jewels.  These  stars  gener¬ 
ally  display  the  complementary  colors.  If  the  one  star  displays  a 
color  from  the  red  end  of  the  spectrum,  the  other  is  generally  of 
the  corresponding  shade,  from  the  violet  end.  For  instance,  in  02 
Cygni,  the  large  star  is  yellow,  and  the  two  smaller  stars  are  blue ; 
and  so  in  others,  through  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow.  “It  may 
be  easier  suggested  in  words,”  says  Sir  John  Ilerschell,  “than 
conceived  in  imagination,  what  a  variety  of  illumination  two  stars 
— a  red  and  a  green,  or  a  yellow  and  blue  one — must  afford  a 
planet  circulating  around  either,  and  what  cheering  contrasts  and 
grateful  vicissitudes  a  red  and  a  green  day,  for  instance,  alternating 
with  a  white  one,  and  with  darkness,  must  arise  from  the  presence 
or  absence  of  one,  or  other,  or  both,  from  the  horizon.”  f  But 
suppose  one  of  the  globular  clusters — for  instance,  that  in  the  con¬ 
stellation  Hercules — thus  constituted;  its  unnumbered  thousands 
of  suns,  wheeling  round  central  worlds,  and  exhibiting  their  glories 
to  their  inhabitants:  “skies  blazing,  with  grand  orbs  scattered 
regularly  around,  and  with  a  profusion  to  which  our  darker  heavens 
are  strangers  ;”  the  overhead  sky,  seen  from  the  interior  regions 
of  the  cluster,  must  appear  gorgeous  beyond  description.”  In  the 
strictest  literality  it  might  be  said  to  the  dwellers  in  such  a  cluster, 
“  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down,  neither  shall  thy  moon  with¬ 
draw  herself.”  The  surrounding  walls  of  such  a  celestial  palace 
must  seem  indeed  “garnished  with  all  manner  of  precious  stones.” 
Sapphire,  emerald,  sardius,  chrysolite,  and  pearl,  must  seem  but 
dim  mirrors  of  its  glorious  refulgence.  Under  its  ever  rising  suns 
the  gates  need  not  be  shut  at  all  by  day,  “  for  there  shall  be  no 
night  there.”  That  glorious  place  now  exists,  though  far  away. 

But  the  Lord  of  these  Hosts  has  said,  “Behold,  I  come  quickly.” 
lie  will  not  tarry.  A  thousand  times  faster  than  the  swiftest  cha¬ 
riot,  our  Solar  System  and  the  surrounding  firmament  wing  their 
flight  towards  that  same  glorious  cluster  in  Hercules.  As  our  fir¬ 
mament  approaches,  under  the  guidance  of  Omnipotent  wisdom,  it 
too  must  fly  to  meet  our  Sun,  with  a  velocity  increasing  with  an 
incalculable  ratio.  The  celestial  city  will  then  be  seen  to  descend 


*  Architecture  of  the  Ilea  veils,  217.  f  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  77,  130. 

282 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


31 


from  heaven.  Once  within  the  sphere  of  its  attractions,  onr  Sun 
and  surrounding  planets  will  feel  their  power.  Their  ancient 
orbits  and  accustomed  revolutions  must  give  way  to  the  higher 
power.  Old  things  must  pass  away,  and  all  things  become  new. 
A  new  heaven,  no  less  than  a  new  earth,  will  form  the  dwelling  of 
righteousness. 

These  are  no  longer  the  visions  of  prophecy  merely,  but  the 
sober  calculations  of  mathematical  science,  based  upon  a  founda¬ 
tion  as  solid  as  the  attraction  of  gravitation,  and  as  wide  as  the 
existence  of  that  ether  whose  undulations  convey  the  light  of  the 
most  distant  stars ;  for,  so  surely  as  that  attraction  is  efficient, 
must  all  the  firmaments  of  the  heavens  be  drawn  more  closely 
together ;  and  as  certainly  as  they  revolve  not  in  empty  space,  but 
in  a  medium  capable  of  retarding  Encke’s  comet  three  days  in 
every  revolution,  must  that  retarding  medium  bring  their  revolu¬ 
tions  to  a  close.  “And  so/7  said  Herschell,  casting  his  eye  fear¬ 
lessly  towards  future  infinities,  “we  may  be  certain  that  the  stars 
in  the  Milky  Way  will  be  gradually  compressed,  through  succes¬ 
sive  stages  of  accumulation,  until  they  come  up  to  what  may  be 
called  the  ripening  period  of  the  globular  cluster.77  Unnumbered 
ages  may  be  occupied  with  such  a  grand  evolution  of  celestial 
progress,  beyond  our  powers  of  calculation ;  but  will  the  changes 
of  created  things,  even  then,  have  come  to  an  end?  Hear  again 
the  voice,  not  of  the  prophet,  but  of  the  astronomer :  “  Around 
us  lie  stabilities  of  every  order;  but  it  is  stability  only  that  we 
see,  not  permanence.  As  the  course  of  our  enquiry  has  already 
amply  illustrated,  even  majestic  systems,  that  at  first  appear  final 
and  complete,  are  found  to  resolve  themselves  into  mere  steps  or 
phases  of  still  loftier  progress.  Verily,  it  is  an  astonishing  world! 
Change  rising  above  change — cycle  growing  out  of  cycle,  in  majes¬ 
tic  progression — each  new  one  ever  widening,  like  the  circles  that 
wreathe  from  a  spark  of  flame,  enlarging  as  they  ascend,  finally 
to  become  lost  in  the  empyrean !  And  if  all  that  we  see,  from 
earth  to  sun,  and  from  sun  to  universal  star-work — that  wherein 
we  best  behold  images  of  Eternity,  Immortality,  and  God — if  that 
is  only  a  state  or  space  of  a  course  of  being  rolling  onward  ever¬ 
more,  what  must  be  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  the  Guide  of  all ! 
— He  at  whose  bidding  these  phantasms  came  from  nothingness, 


*  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  300. 


283 


32 


TELESCOPIC  VIEWS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


and  shall  again  disappear; — -whose  name,  amid  all  things,  alone 
is  Existence— -l  am  that  I  am? 

“  Of  old  hast  thou  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 

“  And  the  heavens  are  the  works  of  thy  hands ; 

“They  shall  perish, 

“But  thou  shalt  endure  ; 

“  Yea,  all  of  them  shall  wax  old,  like  a  garment : 

“  As  a  vesture  shalt  thou  change  them,  and  they  shall  be  changed  ; 
“But  thou  art  the  same, 

“And  thy  years  shall  have  no  end. 

“  The  children  of  thy  servants  shall  continue, 

“And  their  seed  shall  be  established  before  thee.” 

Psalm  cii :  25. 

“  And  I  saw  a  new  heaven,  and  a  new  earth ; 

“  For  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away, 

“  And  there  was  no  more  sea. 

“And  I,  John,  saw  the  Holy  City,  New  Jerusalem, 

“Coming  down  from  God,  out  of  heaven, 

“  Prepared,  as  a  bride,  adorned  for  her  husband. 

“And  I  heard  a  great  voice,  out  of  heaven,  saying, 

“  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men, 

“  And  he  will  dwell  with  them, 

“And  they  shall  be  his  people, 

“  And  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God.” 

Revelations,  xxi. 

Reader,  is  this  glorious  heaven  your  inheritance?  Is  this  Un¬ 
changeable  Jehovah  your  God?  Are  you  looking  for  and  hasting 
unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God?  Is  it  your  daily  prayer,  Even 
so,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly ! 


Wo.  S4. 


‘Faith  is  destined  to  be  left  behind  in  the  onward  march  of 
the  human  intellect.  It  belongs  to  an  infantile  stage  of  intel¬ 
lectual  development,  when  experience,  dependent  on  testimony, 
becomes  the  slave  of  credulity.  Children  and  childish  nations 
are  prone  to  superstition.  Religion  belongs  properly  to  such. 
But  as  man  advances  into  the  knowledge  of  the  physical  sciences, 
and  becomes  familiarized  with  mathematical  demonstration  and 
scientilic  experiment,  he  demands  substantial  proofs  for  all  kinds 
of  knowledge,  and  rejects  that  which  is  merely  matter  of  faith. 
Science  thus  becomes  the  grave  of  religion,  as  religion  is  vul¬ 
garly  understood.  But  science  gives  a  new  and  better  religion 
to  the  world.  Instead  of  filling  men’s  minds  with  the  vague 
terrors  of  an  unknown  futurity,  it  directs  us  to  the  best  modes 
of  improving  this  life.’ — “  This  life  being  the  first  in  certainty, 
give  it  the  first  place  in  importance ;  and  by  giving  human  du¬ 
ties  in  reference  to  men  the  precedence ,  secure  that  all  interpre¬ 
tations  of  spiritual  duty  shall  be  in  harmony  with  human  pro¬ 
gress.” — “Nature  refers  us  to  science  for  help,  and  to  humanity 
for  sympathy;  love  to  the  lovely  is  our  only  homage,  study  our 
only  praise,  quiet  submission  to  the  inevitable  our  duty ;  and 
truth  is  our  only  worship.” — “  Our  knowledge  is  confined  to  this 
life  ;  and  testimony ,  and  conjecture ,  and  probability ,  are  all  that 
can  be  set  forth  in  regard  to  another.”  “Preach  nature  and 
science,  morality  and  art;  nature ,  the  only  subject  of  knowledge ; 
morality  the  harmony  of  action;  art  the  culture  of  the  individual 
and  society.”* 

Such  is  the  language  now  used  by  a  large  class  of  half-edu¬ 
cated  people,  who,  deriving  their  philosophy  from  Comte,  and 
their  religion  from  the  Westminster  Review,  invite  us  to  spend 
our  Sabbaths  in  the  study  of  nature  in  the  fields  and  museums, 
turn  our  churches  into  laboratories,  exchange  our  Bibles  for 
encyclopedias,  give  ourselves  no  more  trouble  about  religion,  but 
try  hard  to  learn  as  much  science,  make  as  much  money,  and 
enjoy  as  much  pleasure  in  this  life  as  we  can;  because  we 


*  Holy  oak e  Discussion  with  Grant,  and,  Discussion  with  Townley,  passim. 

285 


2 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


know  that  we  live  now,  and  can  only  believe  that  we  shall  live 
hereafter.  I  do  not  propose  to  take  any  notice  here  of  the  pro¬ 
posal  of  Secularism — for  that  is  the  new  name  of  this  old  ungod¬ 
liness — to  deliver  men  from  their  lusts  by  scientific  lectures,  and 
keep  them  moral  by  overturning  religion.  That  experiment  has 
been  tried  already.*  But  it  is  worth  while  to  inquire,  Is  science 
really  so  positive,  and  religion  so  uncertain  as  these  persons 
allege  ?  Is  a  knowledge  of  the  physical  sciences  so  all-sufficient 
for  our  present  happiness,  so  attainable  by  all  mankind,  and  so 
certain  and  infallible,  that  we  should  barter  our  immortality  for 
it  ?  And,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  great  facts  of  religious 
experience,  and  the  foundations  of  our  religious  faith,  so  dim, 
and  vague,  and  utterly  uncertain,  that  we  may  safely  consign 
them  to  oblivion,  or  that  we  can  so  get  rid  of  them  if  we 
would  ?  & 

The  object  of  this  tract  is  to  refute  both  parts  of  the  secu¬ 
larist’s  statement — to  show  some  of  the  uncertainties,  errors, 
contradictions,  and  blunders  of  the  scientific  men  on  whose  tes¬ 
timony  they  receive  their  science — and  to  exhibit  a  few  of  the 
facts  of  religious  experience  which  give  a  sufficient  warrant  for 
the  Christian’s  faith. 

I.  The  students  of  the  Physical  Sciences ,  have  no  such  certain 
knowledge  of  their  facts  or  theories ,  as  Secularists  pretend. 

1.  To  begin  with  the  most  positive,  Mathematics — the  science 
of  magnitude  and  numbers.  Plow  very  few  subjects  are  capable 
of  a  mathematical  demonstration.  No  fact  whatever  which  de¬ 
pends  on  the  will  of  God  or  man  can  be  so  proved.  For  mathe¬ 
matical  demonstration  is  founded  on  necessary  and  eternal 
relations,  and  admits  of  no  contingencies  in  its  premises.  The 
mathematician  may  demonstrate  the  size  and  properties  of  a 
triangle,  but  he  can  not  demonstrate  the  continuance  of  any 
actual  triangle  for  one  hour,  or  one  minute,  after  his  demonstra¬ 
tion.  And  if  he  could,  how  many  of  my  most  important  affairs 
can  I  submit  to  the  multiplication  table,  or  lay  off  in  squares 
and  triangles?  It  deals  with  purely  ideal  figures,  which  never 
did  or  could  exist.  There  is  not  a  mathematical  line — length 
without  breadth — in  the  universe.  When  we  come  to  the  appli- 


286 


*See  Tract  No.  25,  Have  we  any  need  of  the  Bible? 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


3 


cation  of  mathematics,  we  are  met  at  once  by  the  fact  that  there 
are  no  mathematical  figures  in  nature.  It  is  true  we  speak  of 
the  orbits  of  the  planets  as  elliptical  or  circular,  but  it  is  only  in 
a  general  way,  as  we  speak  of  a  circular  saw,  the  outline  of  its 
teeth  being  regularity  itself  compared  with  the  perturbations  of 
the  orbits  of  the  planets.  We  speak  of  the  earth  as  a  spheroid; 
but  it  is  a  spheroid  pitted  with  hollows  as  deep  as  the  ocean, 
and  crusted  with  irregular  protuberances  as  vast  as  the  Ilimma- 
laya  and  the  Andes,  in  every  conceivable  irregularity  of  form. 
Its  sea  coasts  and  rivers  follow  no  straight  lines  nor  geometrical 
curves.  There  is  not  an  acre  of  absolutely  level  ground  on  the 
face  of  the  earth;  and  even  its  waters  will  pile  themselves  up 
in  waves,  or  dash  into  breakers,  rather  than  remain  perfectly  level 
for  a  single  hour.  Its  minuter  formations  present  the  same  regu¬ 
lar  irregularity  of  form.  Even  the  crystals,  which  approach  the 
nearest  of  any  natural  productions  to  mathematical  figures,  break 
with  compound  irregular  fractures  at  their  bases  of  attachment. 
The  surface  of  the  pearl  is  proportionally  rougher  than’ the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  earth,  and  the  dew-drop  is  not  more  spherical  than  a 
pear.  As  nature  then  gives  no  mathematical  figures,  mathemat¬ 
ical  measurements  of  such  figures  can  be  only  approximately 
applied  to  natural  objects. 

The  utter  absence  of  any  regularity,  or  assimilation  to  the 
spheroidal  figure,  either  in  meridional,  equatorial,  or  parallel 
lines,  mountain  ranges,  sea  beaches,  or  courses  of  rivers,  is  fatal 
to  mathematical  accuracy  in  the  more  extended  geographical 
measurements.  It  is  only  by  taking  the  mean  of  a  great  many 
measurements  that  an  approximate  accuracy  can  be  obtained. 
Where  this  is  not  possible,  as  in  the  case  of  the  measurements 
of  high  mountains,  the  truth  remains  undetermined  by  hundreds 
of  feet;  or  as  in  the  case  of  the  earth’s  spheroidal  axis,  Bessel’s 
measurement  differs  from  Newton’s,  by  fully  eleven  miles.*  The 
smaller  measures  are  proportionally  as  inaccurate.  No  field, 
hill,  or  lake  has  an  absolute  mathematical  figure ;  but  its  outline 
is  composed  of'  an  infinite  multitude  of  irregular  curves  too 
minute  for  man’s  vision  to  discover,  and  too  numerous  for  his 
intellect  to  estimate.  No  natural  figure  was  ever  measured  with 


*  Humboldt,  Cosmos,  Yol.  I,  p.  7,  156. 


287 


4 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


absolute  accuracy.  In  regard  then  even  to  the  very  limited 
circle  of  our  relations  which  can  be  measured  by  the  foot  rule, 
and  the  small  number  of  our  anxieties  which  may  be  resolved 
by  an  equation — if  by  mathematical  accuracy  be  meant  any  thing 
more  than  tolerable  correctness,  or  by  mathematical  demonstra¬ 
tion  a  very  high  degree  of  probability — mathematical  certainty 
is  all  a  fable. 

2.  Astronomy,  from  the  comparative  simplicity  of  the  forces 
with  which  it  lias  to  deal,  and  the  approximate  regularity  of  the 
paths  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  may  be  regarded  as  the  science  in 
which  the  greatest  possible  certainty  is  attainable.  It  opens  at 
once  the  widest  field  to  the  imagination,  and  the  noblest  range 
to  the  reason,  has  attracted  the  most  exalted  intellects  to  its 
pursuit,  and  has  rewarded  their  toils  with  the  grandest  discov¬ 
eries.  These  discoveries  have  been  grossly  abused  by  inferior 
minds,  ascribing  to  the  discoverers  of  the  laws  of  the  universe, 
the  glory  due  to  their  Creator;  and  boasting  of  the  power  of  the 
human  mind,  as  if  it  were  capable  of  exploring  the  infinite  in 
space,  and  of  calculating  the  movements  of  the  stars  through 
eternity.  And  persons  who  could  not  calculate  an  eclipse  to  save 
their  souls,  have  risked  them  upon  the  notion  that,  because  astron¬ 
omers  can  do  so  with  considerable  accurac}q  farmers  ought  to 
reject  the  Bible,  unless  its  predictions  can  be  calculated  by  alge¬ 
bra.  It  may  do  such  persons  good,  or  at  least  prevent  them  from 
doing  others  harm,  to  take  a  cursory  view  of  the  errors  of  as¬ 
tronomers. 

Sir  John  Ilerscliell,  than  whom  none  has  a  better  right  to 
speak  on  this  subject,  and  whose  devotion  to  that  noble  science 
precludes  all  supposition  of  prejudice  against  it,  devotes  a  chapter 
to  The  Errors  of  Astronomy  *  which  he  classifies  and  enumerates: 

“1st.  External  causes  of  Error,  comprehending  such  as  depend 
on  external  uncontrollable  cricumstances;  such  as  fluctuations 
of  weather,  which  disturb  the  amount  of  refraction  from  its  tab¬ 
ulated  value,  and  being  reducible  to  no  fixed  laws,  induce  uncer¬ 
tainty  to  the  amount  of  their  own  possible  magnitude. 

2d.  Errors  of  observation;  such  as  arise  for  instance  from  in¬ 
expertness,  defective  vision,  slowness  in  seizing  the  exact  instant 


238 


*  Outlines  of  Astronomy,  III,  §13,  140. 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


5 


of  the  occurrence  of  a  phenomenon,  or  precipitancy  in  anticipat¬ 
ing  it ;  from  atmospheric  indistinctness,  insufficient  optical  power 
in  the  instrument,  and  the  like. 

3d.  The  third  and  by  far  the  most  numerous  class  of  errors 
arise  from  causes  which  may  be  deemed  instrumental,  and  which 
may  be  divided  into  two  classes. 

The  first  arises  from  an  instrument  not  being  *what  it  pro¬ 
fesses  to  be,  which  is  error  of  workmanship.  Thus  if  an  axis 
or  pivot,  instead  of  being  as  it  ought,  exactly  cylindrical,  be 
slightly  flattened  or  elliptical — if  it  be  not  exactly  concentric 
with  the  circle  which  it  carries — if  this  circle  so  called  be  in 
reality  not  exactly  circular — or  not  in  one  plane — if  its  divisions, 
intended  to  be  precisely  equi-distant,  shall  be  in  reality  at  une¬ 
qual  intervals — and  a  hundred  other  things  of  the  same  sort. 

The  other  subdivision  of  instrumental  errors  comprehends  such 
as  arise  from  an  instrument  not  being  placed  in  the  position  it 
ought  to  have;  and  from  those  of  its  parts  which  are  made  pur¬ 
posely  movable  not  being  properly  disposed,  inter  se.  These  are 
errors  of  adjustment.  Some  are  unavoidable,  as  the}'-  arise  from 
a  general  unsteadiness  of  the  soil  or  building  in  which  the  in¬ 
struments  are  placed.  Others  again  are  consequences  of  imper¬ 
fect  workmanship;  as  when  an  instrument  once  well  adjusted, 
will  not  remain  so.  But  the  most  important  of  this  class  of 
errors  arise  from  the  non-existence  of  natural  indications  other 
than  those  afforded  by  astronomical  observations  themselves, 
whether  an  instrument  has,  or  has  not,  the  exact  position  with 
respect  to  the  horizon  and  the  cardinal  points,  etc.,  which  it 
ought  to  have,  properly  to  fulfill  its  object. 

Now  with  regard  to  the  first  two  classes  of  error  it  must  be 
observed,  that  in  so  far  as  they  can  not  be  reduced  to  known 
laws,  and  thereby  become  the  subjects  of  calculation  and  due 
allowance,  they  actually  vitiate  to  their  full  extent  the  results  of 
any  observations  in  which  they  subsist.  With  regard  to  errors 
of  adjustment,  not  only  the  possibility,  but  the  certainty  of  their 
existence  in  every  imaginable  form ,  in  all  instruments ,  must  be 
contemplated.  Human  hands  or  machines  never  formed  a  circle , 
drew  a  straight  line ,  or  executed  a  perpendicular ,  nor  ever  placed 
an  instrument  in  perfect  adjustment ,  unless  accidentally ,  and  then 
only  during  an  instant  of  time." 

The  bearing  of  these  important  and  candid  admissions  of  error 
19  ‘  289 


6 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


in  astronomical  observations,  upon  all  other  kinds  of  observations 
made  by  mortal  eyes,  and  with  instruments  framed  by  human 
hands,  in  every  department  of  science,  is  obvious.  No  philo¬ 
sophical  observation  or  experiment  is  absolutely  accurate,  or  can 
possibly  be  more  than  tolerably  near  the  truth.  The  error  of  a 
thousandth  part  of  an  inch  in  an  instrument  will  multiply  itself 
into  thousands  and  millions  of  miles  according  to  the  distance 
of  the  object,  or  the  profundity  of  the  calculation.  Our  faith  in 
the  absolute  infallability  of  scientific  observers,  and  consequently 
in  the  absolute  certainty  of  science,  being  thus  rudely  upheaved 
from  its  very  foundations  by  Sir  John  Herschell’s  crowbar,  we 
are  prepared  to  learn  that  scientific  men  have  made  errors  great 
and  numerous. 

To  begin  at  home,  with  our  own  little  globe,  where  certainty 
is  much  more  attainable  than  among  distant  stars;  we  have  seen 
that  astronomers  of  the  very  highest  rank  are  by  no  means 
agreed  as  to  its  diameter.  Its  precise  form  is  equally  difficult  to 
determine.  Newton  showed  that  an  ellipsoid  of  revolution  should 
differ  from  a  sphere  by  a  compression  of  The  mean  of  a 

number  of  varying  measurements  of  arcs,  in  live  different  places, 
would  give  rry-g.  The  pendulum  measurement  differs  very  con¬ 
siderably  from  both,  and  “  no  two  sets  of  pendulum  experiments 
give  the  same  result.”*  The  same  liability  to  error,  and  uncer¬ 
tainty  of  the  actual  truth,  attends  the  other  modes  of  ascertain¬ 
ing  this  fundamental  measurement.  A  very  small  error  here 
will  vitiate  all  other  astronomical  calculations;  for  the  earth’s 
radius,  and  the  radius  of  its  orbit,  are  the  foot-rule  and  survey¬ 
ors’  chain  with  which  the  astronomer  measures  the  heavens. — 
But  this  last  and  most  used  standard,  is  uncertain  by  360,000 
miles  !f 

While  such  uncertainty  prevails  regarding  the  shape,  size 
and  distance  of  our  own  abode,  we  need  not  expect  any  greater 
infallibility  regarding  more  distant  bodies.  Leslie’s  experiments 
prove  to  him  that  the  moon’s  light  is  yyo^joT)  Par^  that  of  the  sun; 
Bouguor’s  experiments  make  it  only  half  as  much;  and  Wollas¬ 
ton  says  it  is  only  gooWo-t  Bianchini  gives  24  days  8  hours 
as  the  period  of  the  rotation  of  Venus  on  her  axis;  Schroeter 


t 

X 

290 


Somerville’s  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  Section  VI. 
Cosmos,  Vol.  IV,  p.  477. 

1'he  Christian  Philosoph.tr,  by  Thomas  Dick,  L.L.  D.,  p.  82. 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


7 


makes  it  only  23  hours  20  minutes;  Sir  Wm.  Herschell  can  not 
tell  which  is  right,  or  whether  both  are  wrong  *  One  astrono¬ 
mer  fixes  the  period  of  the  Sun’s  revolution  at  25  days  14  hours 
8  minutes;  another  at  2G  days  46  minutes;  another  still  at  24 
days  28  minutes,  f  Svanberg  finds  the  cold  of  absolute  space — the 
empty  places  around  the  stars — to  be,  — 58°;  Arago,  — 70°;  Hum¬ 
boldt,  — 85°;  Herschell, —132°;  Poullett  to  be  exact  to  a  fraction, 
— 223//,  though  when  it  gets  so  cold  as  that  one  would  hardly  be 
particular  about  the  fraction  of  a  degree;  but  Poisson  thinks  he 
is  over  200  degrees  too  cold,  and  fixes  it  accurately,  in  his  own 
opinion,  at-}-  8t6q°4  Ten  or  twelve  years  ago  Mercury  was  believed 
to  be  2.94  times  the  density  of  the  Earth,  and  the  Developement 
Theory  was  founded  partly  upon  the  assumed  fact ;  but  Hansen 
finds  that,  compared  with  the  Earth,  it  is  only  1.22,  and  that  its 
mass  is  only  /T  of  what  had  been  confidently  calculated.  || 

The  omniscience  and  prescience  of  the  human  intellect  have 
been  largely  glorified  by  some  infidel  lecturers,  upon  the  strength 
of  the  accuracy  with  which  it  is  possible  to  calculate  and  pre¬ 
dict  eclipses,  and  to  the  disparagement  of  Bible  predictions. 
And  this  glorification  has  been  amazingly  swollen  by  Le  Ver¬ 
ifier's  prediction  in  1846  of  the  discovery  of  the  planet  Neptune. 
But  the  prediction  of  some  unknown  motion  would  form  a  more 
correct  basis  for  a  comparison  of  the  prophesies  of  science  with 
those  of  scripture;  such  for  instance  as  Immanuell  Kant’s  pre¬ 
diction  of  the  period  of  Saturn’s  rotation  at  6  hours  23  minutes 
53  seconds;  ‘‘which  mathematical  calculation  of  an  unknown 
motion  of  a  heavenly  body,”  he  says,  “  is  the  only  prediction  of 
that  kind  in  pure  Natural  Philosophy ,  and  awaits  confirmation 
at  a  future  period.”  It  is  a  pity  that  this  unique  scientific  pre¬ 
diction  should  not  have  had  better  luck,  for  the  encouragement 
of  other  guesscrs;  but  after  waiting  long  and  vainly,  for  the  ex¬ 
pected  confirmation,  it  was  finally  falsified  by  Herschell’s  discov¬ 
ery  of  spots  on  the  surface  of  the  planet,  and  observation  of  the 
true  time,  10  hours  16  minutes  44  seconds. §  This,  however,  was 
not  his  only  astronomical  prediction.  He  predicted  that  immense 
bodies  in  a  transition  state  between  planets  and  comets,  and  of 
very  eccentric  orbits,  would  be  found  beyond  the  orbit  of  Saturn, 


*  Kendall’s  Uranography,  p.  211. 

f  Cosmos,  4-378.  J  lb.,  3-43.  ||  lb.,  4-174. 

g  Cosmos,  4,  518.  Dick’s  Celestial  Scenery ,  chap.  Ill,  Sec.  7. 

291 


8 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


and  intersecting  it,  but  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  no  such 
bodies  have  been  discovered.  Uranus  and  Neptune  have  no 
cometary  character  whatever,  their  orbits  arc  less  eccentric 
than  others  and  do  not  intersect,  nor  approach  within  millions 
of  miles  of  Saturn’s  orbit.  The  verification  of  Le  Verifier’ s  pre¬ 
diction  affords  even  a  more  satisfactory  proof  of  the  necessarily 
conjectural  character  of  astronomical  computations  of  unknown 
quantities  and  distances.  The  planet  Neptune  has  not  one  half 
the  mass  which  he  had  calculated;  his  orbit,  which  was  calcu¬ 
lated  as  very  elliptical,  is  nearly  circular;  and  the  error  of  the 
calculation  of  his  distance,  is  only  three  hundred  millions  of 
miles  !* 

u  Let  us  then  be  candid,”  says  Loomis,  u  and  claim  no  more 
for  astronomy  than  is  reasonably  due.  When  in  1846  Le  Verrier 
announced  the  existence  of  a  planet  .hitherto  unseen,  and  when 
he  assigned  it  its  exact  position  in  the  heavens,  and  declared 
that  it  shone  like  a  star  of  the  eighth  magnitude,  and  with  a 

O  0  7 

perceptible  disc,  not  an  astronomer  of  France ,  and  scarce  an  as¬ 
tronomer  in  Europe,  had  sufficient  faith  in  the  prediction  to 
prompt  him  to  point  his  telescope  to  the  heavens.  But  when  it 
was  announced  that  the  planet  had  been  seen  at  Berlin,  that  it 
was  found  within  one  degree  of  the  computed  place,  that  it  was 
indeed  a  star  of  the  eighth  magnitude,  and  had  a  sensible  disc 
— then  the  enthusiasm  not  only  of  the  public  generally,  but  of 
astronomers  also,  was  even  more  wonderful  than  then*  former 
apathy.  The  sagacity  of  Le  Verrier  was  felt  to  be  almost  super¬ 
human.  Language  could  scarce  be  found  strong  enough  to  ex- 
press  the  general  admiration.  The  praise  then  lavished  upon 
Le  Verrier  was  somewhat  extravagant.  The  singularly  close 
agreement  between  the  observed  and  computed  places  of  the  planet 
was  accidental.  So  exact  a  coincidence  could  not  reasonably 
have  been  anticipated.  If  the  planet  had  been  found  even  ten 
degrees  from  what  Le  Verrier  assigned  as  its  probable  place, 
this  discrepancy  would  have  surprised  no  astronomer.  The  dis¬ 
covery  would  still  have  been  one  of  the  most  remarkable  events 
in  the  history  of  astronomy  and  Le  Verrier  would  have  merited 
the  title  of  Fir&t  Astronomer  of  the  age.”f  If  we  should  esti- 


*  Cosmos,  1,  75.  Loomis’  Progress  of  Astronomy,  p.  34,  40. 
f  Loomis’  Progress  of  Astronomy ,  p.  34.,  etc. 

292 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


9 


mate  the  infidel  cosmogonies  of  third  and  fourth  rate  astrono¬ 
mers  to  be  only  as  far  from  probability,  as  the  sober  computation 
of  the  First  Astronomer  of  the  Age  was  from  truth,  we  should 
probably  not  err  much  more  than  three  hundred  millions  of 
miles. 

3.  Geology ,  one  of  the  most  recent  of  the  sciences,  and  in  the 
hands  of  infidel  nurses  one  of  the  most  noisy,  has  been  supposed 
to  be  antichristian.  The  supposition  is  utterly  unfounded.  Such 
of  its  facts  as  have  been  well  ascertained  have  demonstrated  the 
being,  wisdom,  and  goodness  of  an  Almighty  Creator,  with  irre¬ 
sistible  evidence.  Nor  though  a  wonderful  outcry  has  been 
raised  about  the  opposition  between  the  records  of  the  rocks  and 
the  records  of  the  Bible,  regarding  the  antiquity  of  the  earth, 
has  any  one  yet  succeeded  in  proving  such  an  opposition;  for  the 
plain  reason  that  neither  the  Bible  nor  geology  says  how  old  it 
is.  They  both  say  it  is  very  old.  The  Bible  says,  “  In  the  be¬ 
ginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth;”  and  by  the  use 
which  it  makes  of  the  word  beginning ,  leaves  us  to  infer  that  it 
was  long  before  the  existence  of  the  human  race.f  If  the  ge¬ 
ologist  could  prove  that  the  earth  was  six  thousand  millions-  of 
years  older  than  Adam,  it  would  contradict  no  statement  of  the 
Bible.  The  Bible  reader,  therefore,  has  no  reason  to  question 
any  well  ascertained  fact  of  geology.  But  when  infidels  come  to 
us  with  their  geological  theories  about  the  mode  in  which  God 
made  the  earth,  or  in  which  the  earth  made  itself,  and  how  long  it 
took  to  do  it,  and  tell  us  that  they  have  got  scientific  demon¬ 
stration  from  the  rocks  that  the  Bible  account  is  false,  and  that 
our  old  traditions  can  not  stand  before  the  irresistible  evidence 
of  science,  we  are  surely  bound  to  look  at  the  foundation  of  facts, 
and  the  logical  superstructure,  which  sustain  such  startling  con¬ 
clusions. 

Now  it  is  remarkable  that  every  infidel  argument  against  the 
statements  of  the  Bible,  or  rather  against  what  they  suppose  to 
be  the  statements  of  the  Bible,  is  based,  not  on  the  facts,  but 
upon  the  theories ,  of  geology.  I  do  not  know  one  which  is  based 
solely  on  facts  and  inductions  from  facts.  Every  one  of  them 
has  a  wooden  leg,  and  goes  hobbling  upon  an  if. 

Take  for  example  the  argument  most  commonly  used — that 


t  Sec  this  proved  in  Tract  32,  Daylight  before  Sunrise,  p.  228. 

293 


10 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


which  asserts  the  vast  antiquity  of  the  earth — a  thing  in  itself 
every  way  likely,  and  not  at  all  contrary  to  Scripture,  if  it  could 
he  scientifically  proved.  But  how  does  our  infidel  geologist  set 
about  his  work  of  proving  that  the  earth  is  any  given  age, 
say  six  thousand  millions  of  years  ?  A  scientific  demonstration 
must  rest  upon  facts — well  ascertained  facts.  It  admits  of  no 
suppositions.  Now  what  are  the  facts  given  to  solve  the  prob¬ 
lem  of  the  earth’s  age?  The  geologist  finds  a  great  many  layers 
of  rocks,  one  above  the  other,  evidently  formed  below  the  water, 
some  of  them  out  of  the  fragments  of  former  rocks,  containing 
bones,  shells,  and  casts  of  fishes  and  tracks  of  the  feet  of  birds, 
made  when  these  rocks  were  in  the  state  of  soft  mud,  and  al¬ 
together  several  miles  thick.  He  has  a  great  multitude  of  such 
facts  before  him,  but  they  are  all  of  this  character.  Not  one  of 
them  gives  him  the  element  of  time.  They  announce  to  him  a 
succession  of  events,  such  as  successive  generations  of  fishes  and 
plants;  but  not  one  of  them  tells  how  long  these  generations 
lived.  The  condition  of  the  world  was  so  utterly  different  then, 
from  what  it  is  now,  that  no  inference  can  be  drawn  from  the 
length  of  the  lives  of  existing  races,  which  are  generally  also  of 
different  species.  The  utmost  any  man  can  say,  in  such  a  case, 
is,  I  suppose,  for  there  is  no  determinate  element  of  time  in  the 
statement  of  the  problems,  and  so  no  certain  time  can  appear  in 
the  solution. 

Here  is  a  problem  exactly  similar.  A  certain  house  is  found 
to  be  built  with  ten  courses  of  hewn  stone  in  the  basement, 
forty  courses  of  brick  in  the  first  story,  thirty-six  courses  in  the 
second,  thirty-two  in  the  third;  with  a  roof  of  nine  inch  rafters 
covered  with  inch  boards,  and  an  inch  and  a  half  layer  of  coal 
tar  and  gravel;  how  long  was  it  in  building?  Would  not  any 
school-boy  laugh  at  the  absurdity  of  attempting  such  a  problem? 
He  would  say,  “How  can  I  tell  unless  I  know  whence  the  ma¬ 
terials  came,  how  they  were  conveyed,  how  many  -workmen  were 
employed,  and  how  much  each  could  do  in  a  day?  If  the 
brick  had  to  be  made  by  hand,  the  lumber  all  dressed  with  the 
handsaw  and  jack-plane,  the  materials  all  hauled  fifty  miles  in 
an  ox-cart,  the  brick  carried  up  by  an  Irishman  in  a  hod,  and 
the  work  done  by  an  old,  slow-going,  jobbing  contractor  who 
could  only  afford  to  pay  three  or  four  men  at  a  time, — they 
would  not  get  through  in  a  year.  But  if  the  building  stone  and 
294 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


11 


sand  were  found  in  excavating  the  cellar,  the  brick  were  made 
by  steam  and  came  by  railroad,  a  good  master  builder,  with 
steam  saw  and  planing  mills,  steam  hoists,  and  a  strong  force  of 
workmen,  would  run  it  up  in  three  weeks.” 

So  our*  geologist  ought  to  say;  “I  do  not  know  either  the 
source  of  the  materials  of  the  earth’s  strata,  nor  the  means  by 
which  they  were  conveyed  to  their  present  positions;  therefore 
I  can  not  tell  the  time  required  for  their  formation.  If  the  crust 
of  the  earth  was  created  originally  of  solid  granite,  and  the 
materials  of  the  strata  were  ground  down  by  the  slow  action  of 
frost  and  rain,  and  conveyed  to  the  ocean  by  the  still  slower  agen¬ 
cy  of  rivers  and  torrents — hundreds  of  millions  of  ages  would  not 
effect  the  work.  But  if  the  earth  was  created  in  such  a  shape  as 
would  rationally  be  considered  the  best  adapted  for  future  stra¬ 
tification — if  its  crust  consisted  of  the  various  elements  of  which 
granite  and  other  rocks  are  composed;  if  these  materials  were 
ejected  in  a  granular  or  comminuted  form,  and  in  vast  quanti¬ 
ties  by  submarine  volcanoes  generated  by  the  chemical  action 
of  these  elements  upon  each  other;  and  if,  after  being  diffused 
by  the  currents  of  the  ocean,  and  consolidated  by  its  vast  pres¬ 
sure,  the  underlying  strata  were  baked  and  melted  and  crystal¬ 
lized  into  granite  * — a  very  few  centuries  would  suffice.  Until 
these  indispensible  preliminaries  are  settled,  geology  can  make 
no  calculations  of  the  length  of  time  occupied  by  the  formation 
of  the  strata.” 

But  instead  of  saying  so,  he  imagines  that  God  chose  to  make 
the  earth  out  of  the  most  impossible  materials,  by  the  most  un¬ 
suitable  agencies,  and  with  the  most  inadequate  forces;  and 
that  therefore  a  long  time  was  needed  for  the  work.  In  short, 
to  revert  to  our  illustration  of  the  house-building,  he  supposes 
that  Almighty  God  built  the  earth  with  the  ox-team,  and  em¬ 
ployed  only  the  same  force  in  erecting  the  building,  which  he  now 
uses  for  doing  little  jobbing  repairs.  Almost  all  geological  com¬ 
putations  of  time  are  made' upon  the  supposition  that  only  the 
same  agents  were  at  work  then  which  we  see  now,  that  they  only 
wrought  with  the  same  degree  of  force,  and  that  they  produced 
just  the  same  effects  in  such  a  widely  different  condition  of  the 


*  See  the  possibility  of  such  a  source  of  volcanic  action,  of  such  a  formation  of 
plutouic  rocks,  proved  by  Lyell.  Principles ,  chs.  XXXII  &  XII. 


295 


12 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


earth  as  tnen  prevailed.  It  takes  a  year  say  to  deposit  mud 
enough  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  to  make  an  inch  of  rock  now; 
and  if  mud  was  deposited  no  faster  when  the  geological  strata 
were  formed,  they  are  as  many  years  old  as  there  are  inches  in 
eight  or  nine  miles  depth  of  strata.  But  this  is  not  the  scien¬ 
tific  proof  we  were  promised.  How  does  he  prove  that  mud 
was  deposited  at  just  the  same  rate  then  as  now?  The  very  ut¬ 
most  he  can  say  is  that  it  is  a  very  probable  supposition.  I  can 
prove  it  a  very  improbable  supposition.  But  it  is  enough  for  my 
present  purpose  to  point  out  that,  probable  or  improbable,  it  is 
only  supposition.  No  proof  is  given  or  can  possibly  be  given 
for  it.  Any  conclusion  drawn  from  such  premises  can  be  only 
a  supposition  too.  And  so  the  whole  fabric  of  geological  chro¬ 
nology,  upon  the  stability  of  which  so  many  infidels  are  risking 
the  salvation  of  their  souls,  and  beneath  which  they  are  boast¬ 
ing  that  they  will  bury  the  Bible  beyond  the  possibility  of  a 
resurrection,  vanishes  into  a  mere  unproved  notion ,  based  upon 
an  if 

It  is  truly  astonishing,  that  any  sober  minded  person  should 
allow  himself  to  be  shaken  in  his  religious  convictions  by  the 
alleged  results  of  a  science  so  unformed  and  imperfect,  as  geol¬ 
ogists  themselves  acknowledge  their  favorite  science  to  be.  “The 
dry  land  upon  our  globe  occupies  only  one  fourth  of  its  whole 
superficies.  All  the  rest  is  sea.  How  much  of  this  fourth  part 
have  geologists  been  able  to  examine?  and  how  small  seems  to 
be  the  area  of  stratification  which  they  have  explored?  We 
venture  to  say  not  one  fiftieth  part  of  the  whole “Abstract  or 
speculative  geology — were  it  a  perfect  science,  would  present  a 
history  of  the  globe  from  its  origin  and  formation,  through  all 
the  changes  it  has  undergone,  up  to  the  present  time;  describing 
its  external  appearance,  its  plants  and  animals,  at  each  succes¬ 
sive  period.  As  yet ,  geology  is  the  mere  aim  to  arrive  at  such 
, knowledge ;  and  when  we  consider  how  difficult  it  is  to  trace  the 
history  of  a  nation,  even  over  a  few  centuries,  we  can  not  be  sur¬ 
prised  at  the  small  progress  geologists  have  made  in  tracing  the 
history  of  the  earth  through  the  lapse  of  ages.  To  ascertain 
the  history  of  a  nation  possessed  of  written  records  is  compara¬ 
tively  easy;  but  when  these  are  wanting,  we  must  examine  the 


>•'  Sir  David  Brewster,  K.  II.,  D.  C.  L.,  F.  It.  S.,  M ore  Worlds  than  One,  p.  56. 

296 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


13 


ruins  of  their  cities  and  monuments,  and  judge  of  them  as  a 
people  from  the  size  and  structure  of  their  buildings,  and  from 
the  remains  of  art  found  in  them.  This  is  often  a  perplexing, 
always  an  arduous  task;  much  more  so  is  it  to  decipher  the  earth' s 
history “The  canoes,  for  example,  and  stone  hatchets  found 
in  our  peat  bogs  afford  an  insight  into  the  rude  arts  and  manners 
of  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  our  island;  the  buried  coin  fixes 
the  date  of  some  Roman  emperor;  the  ancient  encampment  indi¬ 
cates  the  districts  once  occupied  by  invading  armies,  and  the 
former  method  of  constructing  military  defenses;  the  Egyptian 
mummies  throw  light  on  the  art  of  embalming,  the  rites  of 
sepulture,  or  the  average  stature  of  ancient  Egypt.  This  class  of 
memorials  yields  to  no  other  in  authenticity,  but  it  constitutes  a 
small  part  only  of  the  resources  on  which  the  historian  relies ; 
whereas  in  geology  it  forms  the  only  kind  of  evidence  which  is  at 
our  command.  For  this  reason  ice  must  not  expect  to  obtain  a 
full  and  connected  account  of  any  series  of  events  beyond  the 
reach  of  history." f  “There  are  no  calculations  more  doubtful 
than  those  of  the  geologist.  In  fact,  no  truly  scientific  geolo¬ 
gist  pretends  that  it  stands  on  the  same  level  with  any  authentic 
history,  much  less  with  the  Bible  record ;  inasmuch  as  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  a  single  new  fact  may  overturn  the  whole  theory. 
“It  furnishes  us  with  no  clue  by  which  to  unravel  The  unap¬ 
proachable  mysteries  of  creation.  These  mysteries  belong  to 
the  wondrous  Creator,  and  to  him  only.  We  attempt  to  theorize 
upon  them,  and  to  reduce  them  to  law,  and  all  nature  rises  up 
against  us  in  our  presumptuous  rebellion.  A  stray  splinter 
of  cone  bearing  wood — a  fish’s  skull  or  tooth — the  vertebra 
of  a  reptile — the  humerus  of  a  bird — the  jaw  of  a  quadruped  — 
all ,  any  of  these  things,  weak  and  insignificant  as  they  may 
seem,  become  in  such  a  quarrel  too  strong  for  us  and  our  theory 
— the  puny  fragment  in  the  grasp  of  truth  forms  as  irresistible 
a  weapon  as  the  dry  bone  did  in  that  of  Sampson  of  old;  and 
our  slaughtered  sophisms  lie  piled  up,  “heaps  upon  heaps,” 
before  it.  g 

The  history  of  the  progress  of  geology  furnishes  abundant 
proof  of  the  truth  of  these  admissions  of  weakness  and  falli- 


Rudiments  of  Geology ,  W.  &  R.  Chambers,  p.  10. 
f  Lyell’s  Principles  of  Geology,  p.  3.  J  Miller,  Old  Red  Sandstone,  p.  25. 

g  Hugh  Miller,  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  p.  313. 


297 


14 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


bility.  The  history  of  its  theories,  like  that  of  their  framers, 
begins  with  their  birth  and  ends  with  their  burial.  Each  new 
theory  placed  the  tombstone  upon  the  preceding,  and  inscribed 
it  with  the  brief  record  of  the  antediluvian,  “and  he  died.”  A 
busy,  merry  time  they  must  have  had  with  their  Wernerian, 
Huttonian,  and  Diluvian  hypotheses ;  not  to  mention  the  Hutch- 
insonian  theory,  the  animal  spirits  flowing  from  the  sun,  the 
vegetative  power  of  stones,  and  other  sage  and  serious  facts  and 
theories,  theological  and  philosophical,  invented  to  account  for 
the  world’s  creation.  “No  theory,”  says  Lyell,  “could  be  so  far 
fetched  or  fantastical  as  not  to  attract  some  followers,  provided 
it  fell  in  with  the  popular  notion.”  “Some  of  the  most  extra¬ 
vagant  systems  were  invented  or  controverted  by  men  of  ac¬ 
knowledged  talent.”  A  more  amusing  exhibition  of  philosoph¬ 
ical  absurdity  can  not  be  found  than  those  chapters  which  he 
devotes  to  “The  Historical  Progress  of  Geology,”*  unless  per¬ 
haps  the  scientific  discussions  of  the  erudite  acquaintances  of 
Lemuel  Gulliver. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  progress  of  inductive  science, 
and  the  prevalence  of  the  Baconian  philosophy  have  banished 
absurdities  and  contradictions  from  the  sphere  of  Geology.  It 
would  require  a  man  of  considerable  learning  to  find  three  ge¬ 
ologists  agreed  either  in  their  facts  or  in  their  theories.  In  a 
general  way,  indeed,  we  have  the  Catastrophists,  with  Hugh  Mil¬ 
ler,  overwhelming  the  earth  with  dire  convulsions  in  the  geo¬ 
logical  eras,  and  upheaving  the  more  conservative  Lyell  and  the 
Progressionists;  who  affirm  that  all  things  continue  as  they  were 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  And  there  is  perhaps  a  general 
agreement  now  that  the  underlying  primitive  rocks,  so  called, 
are  not  primitive  at  all,  as  geologists  thought  twenty  years  ago; 
but  like  the  foundations  of  a  Chicago  house,  have  been  put  in 
long  after  the  building  was  finished  and  occupied.  But  then 
comes  the  question  how  they  were  inserted — whether  as  Elie  de 
Beaumont  thinks,  the  mountains  were  upheaved  by  starts,  lever 
fashion,  or  as  Lyell  affirms,  very  gradually,  and  imperceptibly, 
like  the  elevation  of  a  brick  house  by  screws  ?f  Nor  is  there 
the  least  likelihood  of  any  future  agreement  among  them;  inas¬ 
much  as  they  can  not  agree  either  as  to  the  thickness  of  the 


*  Principles,  Chaps.  Ill  and  IV. 

298 


i  lb.,  Chap.  XI. 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


15 


earth’s  solid  crust  which  is  to  be  lifted,  or  the  force  by  which  it  is 
to  be  done?  Hopkins  proves  by  astronomical  observation  that  it 
is  800  miles  thick.  Lyell  affirms  that  at  twenty-four  miles  deep 
there  can  be  no  solid  crust,  for  the  temperature  of  the  earth  in¬ 
creases  1°  for  every  45  feet,  and  at  that  depth  the  heat  is  great 
enough  to  melt  iron  and  almost  every  known  substance.  But 
then  there  is  a  difference  between  philosophers  about  this  last 
test  of  solidity — those  who  believe  in  Wedgewood’s  Pyrometer, 
which  was  the  infallible  standard  twenty  years  ago,  asserting 
that  the  heat  of  melted  iron  is  21,000°  F ;  while  Professor  Dan- 
iells  demonstrates  by  another  infallible  instrument  that  it  is  only 
2,786°  F  ;*  which  is  rather  a  difference.  In  one  case  the  earth’s 
crust  would  be  over  two  hundred  miles  thick,  in  the  other 
twenty-four.  But  then  comes  the  great  question,  what  is  below 
the  granite?  and  a  very  important  one  for  any  theory  of  the 
earth.  It  evidently  underlies  the  whole  foundation  of  specula¬ 
tive  geology,  whether  we  assume  with  De  Beaumont  and  Hum¬ 
boldt,  that  “  the  whole  globe,  with  the  exception  of  a  thin  envel¬ 
ope,  much  thinner  in  proportion  than  the  shell  of  an  egg,  is  a  fused 
mass,  kept  fluid  by  heat — a  heat  of  450,000°  F.,  at  the  center,  Cor- 
dier  calculates — but  constantly  cooling,  and  contracting  its  dimen¬ 
sions;”  and  occasionally  cracking  and  falling  in,  and  “squeezing 
upward  large  portions  of  the  mass;”  “thus  producing  those 
folds  or  wrinkles  which  we  call  mountain  chains;”  or  with  Davy 
and  Lyell,  that  the  heat  of  such  a  boiling  ocean  below  would 
melt  the  solid  crust,  like  ice  from  the  surface  of  boiling  water — 
and  with  it  the  whole  theory  of  the  primeval  existence  of  the 
earth  in  a  state  of  igneous  fusion,  its  gradual  cooling  down  into 
continents  and  mountains  of  granite,  the  gradual  abrasion  of  the 
granite  into  the  mud  and  sand  which  formed  the  stratified  rocks, 
and  all  the  other  brilliant  hypotheses  which  have  sparked  out 
of  this  great  internal  fire.  Instead  of  an  original  central  heat 
he  supposes  that  “we  may  perhaps  refer  the  heat  of  the  interior 
to  chemical  changes  constantly  going  on  in  the  earth’s  crust.”f 
Now  if  the  very  foundations  of  the  science  are  in  such  a  state 
of  fusion,  and  floating  on  a  perhaps,  would  it  not  be  wise  to 
allow  them  to  solidify  a  little  before  a  man  risks  the  salvation  of 
his  soul  upon  them? 


*  Principles,  p.  530. 


t  lb.,  chap.  XXXI. 


299 


16 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


Multitudes  of  the  alleged  facts  of  infidel  geologists  are  as  apocry¬ 
phal  as  their  theories  Thus  in  a  recent  ponderous  quarto  volume, 
the  production  of  half  a  dozen  philosophers,  this  identical  im¬ 
possible  theory — of  the  cooling  of  the  earth’s  crust  down  to 
solidity,  while  an  irresistible  central  heat  remains  below — is 
presented  to  the  world  as  an  ascertained  fact;  we  are  informed 
of  the  discovery  of  a  human  skull  57,000  years  old,  in  good  pres¬ 
ervation ;  asked  to  believe  that  two  tiers  of  cypress  snags  could 
not  be  deposited  in  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  in  less  than  11,- 
400  years;  and  to  calculate  that  the  delta  of  the  Kile  must  have 
been  a  great  many  ages  in  growing  to  its  present  size,'  because 
it  is  quite  certain  that  for  the  last  3,000  years  it  has  never 
grown  at  all* 

Nor  have  even  the  most  respectable  geologists  failed  to  estab¬ 
lish  their  fallibility,  and  to  give  ample  employment  to  each 
other  in  correcting  their  omissions,  mistakes  and  blunders; 
as  a  perusal  of  our  scientific  journals  will  abundantly  prove.  It 
were  easy  to  fill  a  volume  with  such  mistakes  of  geologists,  but 
my  limits  restrict  me  to  a  single  specimen,  taken  at  random  from 
the  first  scientific  magazine  which  comes  to  my  hand — the  last 
number  of  Silliman’s  Journal;  in  a  review  of  f  “  The  Geology 
of  North  America;  by  Julius  Marcoe,  ¥.  S.  Geologist,  and  Pro¬ 
fessor  of  Geology  in  the  Federal  Polytechnic  School  of  Switzer¬ 
land;  quarto,  with  maps  and  plates.” 

“The  author  describes  the  mountain  systems  of  •North  Amer¬ 
ica  as  he  supposes  they  must  be,  according  to  the  theoretical 
views  of  Elie  de  Beaumont.”  “Thus  one  single  fossil — that  one 
a  species  of  pine,  and  only  very  much  resembling  the  Pinites 
Fleurotti  of  Dr.  Monguett,  establishes — a  connection  between 
the  New  Red  of  France,  and  that  of  America.  This  is  a  very 
strong  word  for  a  geologist  to  use  on  evidence  so  small,  and  so 
uncertain ,  with  the  fate  of  4,000  or  5,000  feet  of  rock  at  stake, 
and  the  beds  beneath,  containing  “perhaps  Belemnites.”  The 
prudent  observer  would  have  said,  establishes  nothing ;  and  such 
is  the  fact.”  “  On  such  evidence  a  region  over  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  which  is  1,000  miles  from  North  to  South,  and  800 


*  Types  of  Mankind,  329,  338,  337,  335. 

f  The  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Art ,  edited  by  Profs.  Silliman  &  Dana,  vol. 
XXVI,  p.  235,  350. 

300 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


17 


miles  from  East  to  West,  is  for  the  most  part  colored  in  the 
maps  as  Triassic.  Such  a  region  would  take  in  quite  a  respect¬ 
able  part  of  the  continent  of  Europe.”  “We  now  know  beyond 
any  reasonable  doubt,  that  all  the  country  from  the  Platte  to  the 
British  Possessions,  and  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Black  Hills, 
is  occupied  by  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  rocks.  And  as  regards 
the  region  from  the  Platte  southward  to  the  Red  River,  very  far 
the  largest  part  is  known  to  be  not  Triassic ,  while  it  is  possible 
the  Trias  may  occur  in  some  parts  of  it.”  “It  is  unfortunate  in 
its  bearing  on  the  progress  of  geological  science  to  have  false 
views  about  some  500,000  miles  of  territory,  and  much  more  be¬ 
sides,  spread  widely  abroad  through  respectable  journals,  and 
transactions  of  distinguished  European  Societies.”  So  much 
for  the  certainties  of  geology. 

If  space  permitted,  it  would  be  easy  to  go  over  the  whole  cir¬ 
cle  of  the  sciences,  and  show  similar  uncertainties  in  them  all. 
We  have  considered  the  three  which  are  supposed  to  be  the 
most  positive.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  uncertainties  of 
science  increase  just  in  proportion  to  our  interest  in  it.  It  is 
very  uncertain  about  all  my  dearest  concerns,  and  very  positive 
about  what  does  not  concern  me.  The  greatest  certainty  is  at¬ 
tainable  in  pure  mathematics,  which  regards  only  ideal  quantities 
and  figures;  but  biology — the  science  of  life — is  utterly  obscure. 
The  astronomer  can  calculate  with  considerable  accuracy  the 
movements  of  distant  planets,  with  which  we  have  no  inter¬ 
course;  but  where  is  the  meteorologist  bold  enough  to  predict  the 
wind  and  weather  of  next  week,  on  Avhich  my  crops,  my  ships, 
my  life  may  depend?  Heat,  light  and  electricity  may  be  pretty 
accurately  measured  and  registered,  but  what  physician  can 
measure  the  strength  of  the  malignant  virus  which  is  sapping  the 
life  of  his  patient?  The  chemist  can  thoroughly  analyze  any 
foreign  substance,  but  the.  disease  of  his  own  body  which  is 
bringing  him  to  the  grave,  he  can  neither  weigh,  measure  nor 
remove.  Science  is  very  positive  about  distant  stars  and  remote 
ages,  but  stammers  and  hesitates  about  the  very  life  of  its  pro¬ 
fessors. 

4.  Such,  then,  are  a  few  of  the  uncertainties,  imperfections, 
and  positive  and  egregious  errors  of  science  at  its  fountain  head. 
To  the  actual  investigator  infallible  certainty  of  any  scientific 
fact  is  hardly  possible,  error  exceedingly  probable,  and  gross 

301 


18 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


blunder?;  in  fact  and  theory  by  no  means  uncommon.  But  how 
greatly  diluted  must  the  modified  and  hesitating  conviction,  pos¬ 
sible  to  an  actual  observer,  become,  when,  as  is  generally  the 
case,  a  man  is  not  an  actual  observer  himself,  but  learns  Ms 
science  at  school.  Such  a  person  leaves  the  ground  of  demon¬ 
strative  science,  and  stands  upon  faith.  The  first  question  then 
to  be  proposed  to  one  whose  demonstrative  certainty  of  the 
truths  of  physical  science  has  disgusted  him  with  a  religion 
received  on  testimony  and  faith,  is,  How  have  you  reached  this 
demonstrative  certainty  in  matters  of  science?  Are  you  quite 
sure  that  your  certainty  rests  not  upon  the  testimony  of  fallible 
and  erring  philosophers,  but  solely  upon  your  own  personal  ob¬ 
servations  and  experiments? 

To  take  only  the  initial  standard  of  astronomical  measure¬ 
ments — the  earth’s  distance  from  the  sun.  Have  you  personally 
measured  the  earth’s  radius,  observed  the  transit  of  Venus  in 
1769,  from  Lapland  and  Tahiti  at  the  same  time,  calculated 
the  sun’s  parrallax,  and  the  eccentricity  of  the  earth’s  orbit? 
Would  you  profess  yourself  competent  to  take  even  the  prelimi¬ 
nary  observation  for  fixing  the  instruments  for  such  a  reckoning? 
Were  you  ever  within  a  thousand  miles  of  the  proper  positions 
for  making  such  observations?  Or  have  you  been  necessitated 
to  accept  this  primary  measure,  upon  the  accuracy  of  which  all 
subsequent  astronomical  measurers  depend,  merely  upon  hear¬ 
say  and  testimony,  and  subject  to  all  those  contingencies  of  error 
and  prejudice,  and  mistakes  of  copyists,  which,  in  your  opinion, 
render  the  Bible  so  unreliable  in  matters  of  religion? 

Or  to  come  down  to  earth.  You  are  a  student  of  the  stone 
book,  with  its  enduring  records  graven  in  the  rock  forever;  and 
perhaps  have  satisfied  yourself  that  “  under  the  ponderous  strata 
of  geological  science  the  traditionary  mythology  and  cosmogony  of 
the  Hebrew  poet  has  found  an  everlasting  tomb.”  But  how  many 
volumes  of  this  stone  book  have  you  perused  personally?  You 
are  quite  indignant  perhaps  that  theologians  and  divines,  who 
have  no  practical  or  personal  knowledge  of  geology,  should  pre¬ 
sume  to  investigate  its  claims.  Have  you  personally  visited  the 
various -localities  in  South  America,  Siberia,  Australia,  India, 
Britain,  Italy,  and  the  South  Seas,  where  the  various  formations 
are  exhibited;  and  have  you  personally  excavated  from  their 
matrices  the  various  fossils  which  form  the  hieroglyphics  of  the 
302 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


19 


science?  Have  you,  in  fact,  ever  seen  one.  in  a  thousand  of 
these  minerals  and  fossils  in  situ ?  Or  are  you  dependent  on 
the  tales  of  travelers,  the  specimens  of  collectors,  the  veracity 
of  authors,  the  accuracy  of  lecturers,  aided  by  maps  of  ideal 
stratifications,  in  rose-pink,  brimstone-yellow,  and  indigo-blue, 
for  your  profound  and  glowing  convictions  of  the  irresistible 
force  of  experimental  science,  and  of  the  shadowy  vagueness  of 
a  religion  dependent  upon  human  testimony? 

To  come  down  considerably  in  our  demands  and  confine  our¬ 
selves  to  the  narrow  limits  of  the  laboratory.  You  are  a  chem¬ 
ist  perhaps,  and  proud,  as  most  chemists  justly  are,  of  the  accu¬ 
racy  attainable  in  that  most  palpable  and  demonstrative  science. 
But  how  much  of  it  is  experimental  science  to  you  ?  How  many 
of  the  942  substances  treated  of  in  Turner’s  Chemistry  have  you 
analyzed?  One  half?  One  tenth?  Would  you  face  the  laughter 
of  a  college  class  to-morrow  upon  the  experiment  of  taking  nine 
out  of  the  nine  hundred,  reducing  them  to  their  primitive  elements, 
giving  an  accurate  analysis  of  their  component  parts,  and  combin¬ 
ing  them  in  the  various  forms  described  in  that,  or  any  other  book, 
whose  statements,  because  experimentally  certain,  have  filled  you 
with  a  dislike  of  Bible  truths,  which  you  must  receive  upon  tes¬ 
timony?  In  fact,  do  you  know  any  thing  worth  mention  of  the 
facts  of  science  upon  your  own  knowledge,  except  those  of  the 
trade  by  which  you  make  your  living? 

Or,  after  all  your  boasting  about  scientific  and  demonstrative 
certaint}-,  have  you  been  obliged  to  receive  the  certainties  of 
science  “upon  faith,  and  at  second  hand,  and  upon  the  word  of 
another;”  and  to  save  your  life  you  could  not  tell  half  the 
time  who  that  other  is,  by  naming  the  discoverers  of  half  the 
scientific  truths  you  believe  ?  What !  are  you  dependent  on 
hearsay  and  probability  for  any  little  science  you  possess,  having 
in  fact  never  obtained  any  personal  demonstration  or  experience 
of  its  first  principles  and  measurements,  nor  being  capable  of 
doing  so?  Then  let  us  hear  no  more  cant  from  you  about  the 
uncertainty  of  a  religion  dependent  upon  testimony,  and  the 
certainties  of  experimental  science.  Whatever  certainty  may 
be  attainable  by  scientific  men — and  we  have  seen  that  is  not 
much — it  is  very  certain  you  have  got  none  of  it.  The  very 
best  you  can  have  to  wrap  yourself  in  is  a  second  hand  as¬ 
surance,  grievously  torn  by  rival  schools,  and  needing  to  be 

303 


20 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


patched  every  month  by  later  discoveries.  Your  science,  such 
as  it  is,  rests  solely  upon  faith  in  the  testimony  of  philosophers, 
often  contradictory  and  improbable,  and  always  fallible  and  un¬ 
certain. 

5.  Nor  would  you  cease  to  be  dependent  upon  faith  could  you 
personally  make  all  the  observations  and  calculations  of  demon¬ 
strative  science.  The  knowledge  of  these  facts  does  not  consti¬ 
tute  science;  it  is  merely  the  brick  pile  containing  the  materials 
for  the  building  of  science.  Science  is  knowledge  systematized. 
But  if  the  parts  of  nature  were  not  arranged  after  a  plan, 
the  knowledge  of  them  could  not  be  formed  into  a  system. — • 
Chaos  is  unintelligible.  Our  minds  are  so  constituted  that  we 
look  for  order  and  regularity,  and  can  not  comprehend  confusion, 
We  possess  this  expectation  of  order  before  we  begin  to  learn 
science,  and  without  it  would  never  begin  the  search  after  a 
system  of  knowledge.  All  scientific  experiment  is  but  a  search 
after  order,  and  order  is  only  another  name  for  intelligence — for 
God.  Deprive  us  of  this  fundamental  faith  in  cause  and  effect, 
order  and  regularity — of  reason,  in  short — and  science  becomes 
as  impossible  to  man  as  to  the-ourang  outang.  All  science ,  even 
in  its  first  principles ,  rests  upon  faith. 

II.  We  may  now  proceed  to  inquire  whether  or  not  faith, 
which  we  have  found  so  prevalent  even  among  those  who  repu¬ 
diate  it,  is  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of ;  or  if  it  be  a  sufficiently 
certain  and  reliable  basis  for  human  life  and  conduct. 

1.  We  are  met  at  the  very  outset  by  the  great  fact  that  God 
has  so  constituted  the  world  and  every  thing  in  it,  that  in  all 
the  great  concerns  of  life  we  are  necessitated  to  depend  on  faith; 
without  any  possibility  of  reaching  absolute  certainty  regarding 
the  result  of  any  ordinary  duty.  We  sow  without  any  certainty 
of  a  crop,  or  that  we  may  live  to  reap  it.  We  harvest,  but  our 
barns  may  be  burned  down.  We  sell  our  property  for  bank- 
bills,  but  who  dare  say  they  will  ever  be  paid  in  specie?  We 
start  on  a  journey  to  a  distant  city,  but  even  though  you  insure 
your  life,  who  will  insure  that  fire,  or  flood,  or  railroad  collision 
may  not  send  you  to  the  land  whence  there  is  no  return? 

Science  is  the  child  of  yesterday;  but  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  men  have  lived  by  faith.  Before  science  was  born, 
Cain  tilled  his  ground  without  any  mathematical  demonstration 
that  he  should  reap  a  crop.  Abel  fed  his  flock  without  any 
304 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


21 


scientific  certainty  that  he  should  live  to  enjoy  its  produce; 
and  Tubal  Cain  forged  axes  and  swords  without  any  assur¬ 
ance  that  he  should  not  be  plundered  of  his  wages.  All 
the  experience  of  mankind  proves  that  experimental  certainty 
regarding  the  most  important  business  of  this  life  is  impossible. 
By  what  process  of  philosophical  induction  is  religion  alone  put 
beyond  the  sphere  of  faith  and  hope?  If  religious  duties  are 
not  binding  on  us,  unless  religion  be  scientifically  demonstrated, 
then  neither  are  moral  obligations;  for  these  two  can  not  be 
separated.  Is  it  really  so,  that  none  but  scientific  men  are 
bound  to  tell  truth  and  pay  their  debts,  and  that  a  person  may 
not  fear  God  and  go  to  heaven  unless  he  has  graduated  at  col¬ 
lege?  The  common  sense  of  mankind  declares  that  we  live  by 
faith,  not  by  science. 

2.  We  demand  the  knowledge  of  truths  of  which  science  is 
profoundly  ignorant.  Science  is  but  an  outlying  nook  of  my 
farm,  which  I  may  neglect  and  yet  have  bread  to  eat.  Faith  is 
my  house  in  which  all  my  dearest  interests  are  treasured.  Of 
all  the  great  problems  and  precious  interests  which  belong  to 
me  as  a  mortal  or  an  immortal,  science  knows  nothing.  I  ask 
her  whence  I  came  ?  and  she  points  to  her  pinions  scorched  over 
the  abyss  of  primeval  fire,  her  eyes  blinded  by  its  awful  glare, 
and  remains  silent.  I  inquire  what  I  am?  but  the  strange  and 
questioning  I  is  a  mystery  which  she  can  neither  analyze  nor 
measure.  I  tell  her  of  the  voice  of  conscience  within  me — she 
never  heard  it,  and  does  not  pretend  to  understand  its  oracles. 
I  tell  her  of  my  anxieties  about  the  future — she  is  learned  only 
in  the  past.  I  inquire  how  I  may  be  happy  hereafter — but  hap¬ 
piness  is  not  a  scientific  term,  and  she  can  not  tell  me  how  to  be 
happy  here!  Poor,  blind  science! 

3.  All  our  dearest  interests  lie  beyond  the  domains  of  science , 
in  the  regions  of  faith.  Science  treats  of  things — faith  is  con¬ 
fidence  in  persons.  Take  away  the  persons,  and  of  what  value 
are  the  things?  The  world  becomes  at  once  a  vast  desert,  a 
dreary  solitude,  and  more  miserable  than  any  of  its  former  in¬ 
habitants  the  lonely  wretch  who  is  left  to  mourn  over  the  graves 
of  all  his  former  companions — the  last  man.  Solitary  science 
were  awful.  Could  I  prosecute  the  toils  of  study  alone,  without 
companion  or  friend  to  share  my  labors?  Would  I  study  eter¬ 
nally  with  no  object,  and  for  no  use;  none  to  be  benefited,  none 

20  305 


22 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


to  be  gratified  by  my  discoveries  ?  Though  you  hung  maps  on 
every  tree,  made  every  mountain  range  a  museum,  bored  mines 
in  every  valley,  and  covered  every  plain  with  specimens,  made 
Vesuvius  my  crucible,  and  opened  the  foundations  of  the  earth 
to  my  view — yet  would  the  discovery  of  a  single  fresh  human  foot¬ 
print  in  the  sand  fill  my  heart  with  more  true  hope  of  happiness, 
than  an  endless  eternity  of  solitary  science.  I  can  live,  and 
love,  and  be  happy  without  science,  but  not  without  companion¬ 
ship,  whose  bond  is  Faith. 

Faith  is  the  condition  of  all  the  happiness  you  can  know  on 
earth.  Law,  order,  government,  civilization,  and  family  life,  de¬ 
pend  not  upon  science,  but  upon  confidence,  in  moral  character 
— upon  faith.  In  its  sunshine  alone  can  happiness  grow.  It  is 
faith  sends  you  out  in  the  morning  to  your  work,  nerves  your 
arms  through  the  toils  of  the  day,  brings  you  home  in  the  even¬ 
ing,  gathers  your  wife  and  your  children  around  your  table, 
inspires  the  oft  repeated  efforts  of  the  little  prattler  to  ascend 
your  knee,  clasps  his  chubby  arms  around  your  neck,  looks  with 
most  confiding  innocence  in  your  eye,  and  puts  forth  his  little 
hand  to  catch  your  bread,  and  share  your  cup.  Undoubting  faith 
is  happiness  even  here  below.  Need  you  marvel,  then,  that  you 
must  be  converted  from  your  pride  of  empty,  barren  science, 
and  casting  yourself  with  all  your  powers  into  the  arms  of  faith, 
become  as  a  little  child  before  you  can  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven? 

4.  But  religion  is  not  founded  upon  faith  as  distinct  from  ob¬ 
servation  and  experiment.  It  is  the  most  experimental  of  all 
the  sciences.  There  is  less  of  theory,  and  more  of  experience 
in  it  than  in  any  other  science.  Its  faith  is  nil  practical.  It  is 
a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  faith  is  the  opposite  pole  of  ex¬ 
perience.  On  the  contrary,  experience  is  just  the  fruit  which 
ripens  from  the  blossom  of  faith.  We  have  seen  how  an  un¬ 
derlying  conviction  of  the  existence  of  an  intelligent  planner 
and  upholder  of  the  laws  of  nature  is  the  source  of  all  scien¬ 
tific  experiment,  and  systematized  knowledge.  A  similar  under¬ 
lying  conviction  of  the  existence  of  a  moral  governor  of  the 
world  is  the  source  of  all  religious  experience.  He  that  someth 
to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  the  reivarder  of 
those  that  diligently  seek  him.  But  this  fundamental  axiom 
believed,  long  trains  of  experience  follow :  of  every  one  of  which 
aufi 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


23 


you  can  be,  and  actually  are,  infinitely  more  certain  than  of 
any  fact  of  physical  science.  Your  eyes,  your  ears,  your  touch, 
your  instruments,  your  reason,  may  be  deceived — but  your  con¬ 
sciousness  can  not.  If  your  soul  is  filled  with  joy,  that  is  a  fact. 
You  know  it,  and  are  as  sure  of  it  as  you  are  that  the  sun 
shines.  Jf  you  feel  miserable,  you  are  so.  A  sense  of  neglect¬ 
ed  duty,  a  consciousness  that  you  have  done  wrong  and  are 
displeased  with  yourself  for  it;  a  certainty  that  God  is  displeased 
with  you  for  wrong  doing,  and  that  he  will  show  his  displeasure 
by  suitable  punishment;  the  tenacious  grasp  of  vicious  habits 
on  your  body  and  soul,  and  the  fearful  thought  that  by  the  law 
of  your  nature  these  vipers  which  you  vainly  struggle  to  shake 
off,  will  for  ever  keep  involving  you  more  closely  in  their 
cursed  coils — these  are  facts  of  your  experience.  You  are  as 
certain  that  they  give  you  disquiet  of  mind,  when  you  entertain 
them,  as  that  the  sea  rages  in  a  tempest;  and  that  you  can  no 
more  prevent  their  entrance,  nor  compel  their  departure,  nor 
calm  nor  drown  the  anxiety  they  occasion,  than  you  can  prevent 
the  rising  of  the  tempest,  dismiss  the  thunder-storm,  or  drown 
Etna  in  your  wineglass.  Of  these  primary  facts  of  moral  sci¬ 
ence,  and  of  others  like  them,  you  possess  the  most  absolute 
and  infallible  certainty  from  your  own  consciousness.  They  re¬ 
sult  from  the  inertia  of  moral  matter,  which,  when  put  into  a 
state  of  disturbance  has  no  power  of  bringing  itself  to  rest, 
expressed  in  the  formula,  There  is  no  peace ,  saith  my  God ,  to 
the  wicked 

Let  us  now  go  out  of  your  own  experience,  as  you  must  do  in 
every  other  science,  into  the  region  of  observation,  and  study  a 
few  of  the  other  phenomena  of  religion.  Your  comrade,  Jones, 
has  taken  to  drinking  of  late,  and  also  to  going  with  you  to 
Sunday  lectures,  and  in  the  evening  to  other  places  of  amuse¬ 
ment.  He  has,  however,  been  warned  that  the  next  time  he 
comes  drunk  to  the  workshop  he  will  be  discharged ;  and  as  he 
is  a  clever  young  fellow,  and  knows  more  about  the  Bible  than 
you,  having  gone  to  Sabbath-School  when  a  boy,  and  is  able 
to  use  up  the  saints  cleverly,  you  would  be  sorry  to  lose  his 
company.  So  you  set  on  him  to  go  with  you  to  hear  a  temper¬ 
ance  lecture,  hoping  he  may  be  induced  to  take  the  pledge; 


*  Isaiah  48,  22. 


307 


24 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


for  if  he  does  not  you  fear  he  will  soon  lie  in  the  gutter.  He 
curses  you  and  himself  too,  if  ever  he  listens  to  any  such  stuff; 
and  refuses  to  go.  You  can  easily  gather  a  hundred  other  illus¬ 
trations  of  the  great  law  of  the  moral  repulsion  between  vice 
and  truth,  expressed  in  the  following  formula:  This  is  the  con¬ 
demnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world ,  and  men  loved 
darkness  rather  than  light ,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.  For 
every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light ,  neither  cometli  to  the 
light  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved .*  Your  life,  however,  is 
but  a  long  illustration  of  this  principle.  Have  you  not  willingly 
remained  in  ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  because  you 
dislike  its  commands? 

There  is  another  fact  of  the  same  science — there,  in  the  gutter 
before  you,  wallowing  in  his  own  vomit,  covered  with  rags,  be¬ 
smeared  with  mud,  smelling  worse  than  a  hog,  his  bruised 
and  bleeding  mouth  unable  to  articulate  the  obscenities  and 
curses  he  tries  to  utter.  “Is  it  possible  that  can  be  Bill  Brown! 
Why  only  three  years  ago  we  worked  at  the  same  bench.  It  was 
he  who  introduced  me-. to  the  Sunday  Institute;  as  clever  a 
workman  and  as  jovial  a  comrade  as  I  ever  knew,  but  would 
get  on  a  spree  now  and  again.  He  had  a  good  father  and  mo¬ 
ther,  got  considerable  schooling,  had  good  wages,  got  married  to 
a  clever  girl  and  had  two  fine  children.  Is  it  possible  he  could 
make  such  a  beast  of  himself  in  such  a  short  time?”  Yes,  quite 
possible,  and  more,  quite  certain.  _  Not  only  in  his  case,  but  in 
all  others,  the  law  of  moral  gravitation  is  universal  and  infalli¬ 
ble.  Evil  men  and  seducers  wax  worse  and  worse,  j*  The  degra¬ 
dation  may  not  always  be  in  this  precise  form,  nor  always  as 
speedy — as  all  heavy  bodies  do  not  fall  to  the  same  place,  nor  with 
like  rapidity.  But  it  is  always  as  certain  and  always  as  deep, 
and  will  one  day  be  far  more  public.  Fix  it  firmly  in  your 
mind.  It  concerns  you  more  than  all  the  science  you  will  ever 
know.  You  too  are  in  the  course  of  sin  and  you  know  it.  You 
have  already  begun  to  fall. 

Come  again  into  this  room.  “What,  into  a  prayer  meeting? 
I  do  n’t  go  to  such  places.”  But,  if  you  want  to  study  the  phe¬ 
nomena  of  religion  scientifically,  you  should  go  to  such  places  ; 
just  as  if  you  want  to  study  geology  you  should  go  to  the  places 


*  John,  3d  chap. 

308 


f  2  Timothy,  3d  ch.  Bead  the  whole  chapter  ( 


/ 

SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH.  25 

where  the  strata  are  exposed  to  view.  I  do  not  ask  you  to 
speak  and  ask  people  to  pray  for  you,  but  only  to  look  on  and 
listen.  If  you  are  a  philosopher  I  wish  you  to  cease  dogmatiz¬ 
ing  about  fanaticism  and  enthusiasm  and  the  ignorance  and 
credulity  of  believers,  at  least  until  you  philosophically  examine 
the  evidence  upon  which  they  believe.  You  can  set  aside,  if 
you  please,  their  unfounded  beliefs  concerning  matters  beyond 
their  capacity,  and  also  their  confident  hopes  for  futurity.  What 
I  wish  you  to  examine  is  their  actual  experience  of  religion ,  as 
they  severally  relate  it.  For  as  we  have  seen,  the  facts  of 
consciousness  are  just  as  certain,  and  as  ascertainable,  as  the 
facts  discovered  by  our  senses ;  and  there  is  no  reason  in  the 
world  why  we  should  not  pursue  the  study  of  religion  in  the 
same  way  that  we  gain  a  knowledge  of  science ;  namely,  by  col¬ 
lecting  and  studying  the  facts  accumulated  by  those  who  have 
made  experiments,  and  have  obtained  a  practical  knowledge  of 
the  matter. 

There  are  here,  as  you  see,  a  great  number  of  religious  ex¬ 
perimenters.  They  are  also  of  very  various  conditions  of  life, 
and  of  various  degrees  of  education.  Many  of  them  are  more¬ 
over  well  known  to  you,  so  that  you  are  in  a  favorable  position 
for  forming  a  fair  judgment  of  their  discoveries,  t  There  is  your 
comrade  Smith,  Hopkins  who  does  the  hauling  for  your  estab¬ 
lishment,  Lawyer  Hammond,  Professor  Edwards  whose  chemical 
lectures  you  attend,  Dr.  Lawrence  who  lectured  before  the  Ly¬ 
ceum  last  winter,  Mr.  Heidenberger  who  wrote  a  series  of  arti¬ 
cles  on  Compte’s  Positive  Philosophy  for  the  Investigator,  Mrs. 
Bridgman,  your  Aunt  Polly  who  nursed  you  during  your  typhoid 
fever,  and  a  great  many  others  whom  you  know  quite  well. — 
Professor  Edwards  leads  in  prayer,  and  gives  a  brief  address. 
You  never  dreamt  that  he  was  hoaxing  you  when  he  told  you 
of  his  chemical  experience;  have  you  any  reason  to  offer  for  be¬ 
lieving  that  he  now  solemnly  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  lies 
to  you  and  this  assembly,  when  he  tells  you  of  the  peace  he  has 
found  in  believing  in  Christ,  and  the  happiness  he  experiences 
in  uniting  with  his  brethren  in  the  worship  of  God?  Or  is  he 
more  liable  to  error  in  noting  the  fact  of  his  mental  joy  or  sor¬ 
row,  than  in  observing  the  effect  of  the  extraordinary  ray  in 
double  refraction?  If  not,  the  fact  that  he  has  felt  this  reli- 

309 


26 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


gious  experience,  is  just  as  certain  as  the  fact,  that  he  has  seen 
polarized  light. 

There  is  your  comrade  Smith,  whom  you  have  known  for  years, 
actually  got  up  to  speak  in  meeting.  You  are  surprised;  but 
listen:  “Neighbors  and  friends,  most  of  you  know  I  never 

cared  much  about  religion,  and  was  often  given  to  take  more 
liquor  than  was  good  for  me,  and  then  I  would  fight  and  curse 
awful  bad.  I  knew  as  well  as  any  body  that  it  was  n’t  right, 
and  always  felt  bad  after  a  spree,  and  many  a  time  I  said  I 
would  turn  over  a  new  leaf  and  be  good.  But  it  was  all  no  use, 
for  as  soon  as  any  of  the  fellows  would  come  around  after  me,  I  al¬ 
ways  went  along  with  them,  till  at  last  I  gave  it  up,  and  said  it  was 
no  use  to, try.  Still,  whenever  any  of  my  acquaintances  died,  I 
felt  scared  like;  and  I  kept  away  as  far  as  I  could  from  churches 
and  preachers  and  such  like,  because  I  could  not  bear  to  think 
about  God  and  judgment  to  come.  Well,  about  five  weeks  ago 
my  little  Minnie  set  on  me  one  Sabbath  morning  to  carry  her 
to  church,  and  to  please  the  little  creature — for  she  is  as  pert  a 
darling  as  you  could  see  anywhere — I  told  my  wife  to  get  her 
ready  and  we  would  go.  She  seemed  as  if  she  would  cry,  and 
kept  talking  to  herself  all  the  way.  When  we  got  into  the 
church  the  singing  almost  upset  me,  for  I  had  not  been  to  a 
church  since  I  was  a  little  fellow,  just  before  father  and  mother 
died.  But  it  seemed  as  if  it  was  the  same  tune,  and  as  if  the 
tune  brought  them  all  back,  and  I  saw  them  again  and  all  the 
family,  and  heard  mother  sing  as  she  used  to,  and  I  forgot 
church  and  every  thing,  and  thought  I  was  a  little  fellow  play¬ 
ing  about  on  the  floor  just  as  I  used  to  do  when  I  was  a  happy 
child.  When  they  stopped  I  was  so  sorry,  and  wished  I  could  just 
be  as  innocent  and  as  happy  as  I  was  then.  Well,  it  seemed 
like  the  preacher  had  been  reading  my  thoughts,  for  he  gave 
out  for  his  text,  Verily ,  verily  I  say  unto  you ,  unless  a  man  be 
born  again  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  began  to 
preach  how  Jesus  can  give  us  new  hearts  and  save  us  from  our 
sins;  that  his  blood  cleanses  from  all  sin;  that  he  is  able  to 
save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  through  him.  The 
tears  came  into  my  eyes,  and  I  could  hardly  keep  my  mouth 
shut  till  1  got  out.  When  I  got  home  I  knelt  down  and  cried  to 
Jesus  to  save  me  from  my  sins;  and  my  wife  prayed  too,  and 
310 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


27 


we  cried  for  mercv.  The  Lord  heard  us,  and  I  felt  light  and 
happy,  and  I  went  to  church  again,  and  sung  with  the  rest. — 
And  the  best  of  it  is,  the  Lord  delivered  me  from  the  drink;  as 
I  told  a  man  who  asked  where  I  was  going  to-day,  and  I  told 
him  I  was  going  to  prayer-meeting,  for  I  had  got  religion  now. 
He  said  there  were  a  great  many  religions,  and  most  of  them 
wrong,  and  a  great  many  people  said  all  religion  was  only  a 
notion,  and  preaching  only  nonsense.  I  says  to  him,  ‘  Look 
here,  stranger,  do  you  see  that  tavern  there?’  ‘Yes,’  says  he. 
‘Well,’  says  I,  ‘do  you  see  me?’  ‘I  do,  of  course,’  says  he. — 
‘Well,’  says  I,  ‘every  little  fellow  in  these  parts  knows  that  so 
long  as  Tom  Smith  had  a  quarter  in  his  pocket  he  could  never 
pass  that  tavern  without  having  a  drink.  All  the  men  in  Jeffer¬ 
son  could  not  stop  him.  Now  look  here,’  says  I,  ‘there  is  my 
week’s  wages,  and  I  can  go  past,  and  thank  God  I  do  n’t  feel 
the  least  like  drinking,  for  the  Lord  Jesus  has  saved  me  from 
it.  If  you  call  that  a  notion,  it  is  a  mighty  powerful  notion, 
and  it  is  a  notion  that  has  put  clothes  on  my  children’s  backs, 
and  plenty  of  good  food  on  my  table,  and  songs  of  praise  to  the 
Lord  in  my  mouth.  That  ’ s  a  fact ,  stranger.  Glory  be  to  God 
for  it.  And  I  would  recommend  you  to  come  to  prayer  meet¬ 
ing  with  me,  and  maybe  you  would  get  religion  too.  A  great 
many  people  are  getting  religion  now.’  ” 

His  last  remark  is  certainly  very  true.  There  are  so  many, 
and  of  such  various  characters  and  grades  of  life,  and  in  so 
many  places,  that  every  reader  can  easily  find  several  Tom 
Smiths  of  his  own  acquaintance,  whose  conversions  display  all 
the  essential  facts  of  this  case,  and  prove  that: 

5.  The  facts  of  religious  experience  are  better  attested ,  and 
more  unobjectionable  than  those  of  any  other  science. 

Unless  they  can  be  shown  to  be  unreasonable  or  impossible, 
we  are  bound  to  receive  them,  when  presented  by  the  experi- 
mentists  who  have  discovered  them,  though  personally  we  may 
not  have  any  such  experience;  just  as  we  believe  the  chemists, 
or  the  astronomers  who  relate  their  discoveries  which  personally 
we  have  not  observed.  But  the  facts  of  religion  are  by  no  means 
unreasonable.  They  can  not  be  shown  to  contradict  any  known 
law  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  true  they  are  mysterious.  But 
so  are  the  facts  of  physical  science — heat,  light,  electricity,  grav¬ 
itation.  Of  either,  we  may  be  quite  certain  that  such  pnenom- 

01  | 

Oil 


23 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


ena  exist,  and  utterly  ignorant  of  the  mode  of  their  operation.  It 
were  as  utterly  unphilosophical  to  deny  that  Almighty  God  could 
impart  nervous  energy  to  the  languid  limbs  of  your  sick  neigh¬ 
bor,  because  you  are  ignorant  of  its  origin  and  means  of  trans¬ 
mission,  as  to  deny  that  God  could  impart  spiritual  electricity  to 
his  paralyzed  soul,  because  you  are  ignorant  of  the  mode  in 
which  he  bestows  it.  And  ignorance  is  all  that  you  can  plead 
in  this  case.  You  must  just  admit  that  having  tried  an  experi¬ 
ment  which  you  have  not,  your  religious  friend  has  a  right  to 
know  more  than  you. 

Moreover-,  the  facts  of  religion  are  presented  for  belief  upon  the 
most  abundant  and  reliable  testimony.  In  physical  science  you 
must  rely  on  the  testimony  of  a  very  few  observers — the  great 
bulk  even  of  scientific  men  having  no  opportunity  of  testing  the 
facts  themselves,  and  being  well  satisfied  if  any  fact  is  confirmed 
by  the  testimony  of  two  or  three  philosophers — and  this  testi¬ 
mony  often  contradictory,  and  always  fallible,  as  the  discordant 
results  of  their  experiments  prove.  But  here  you  have  a  great 
multitude  of  experimentists,  in  every  city  and  village  of  the  land, 
of  every  variety  of  intellect  and  education,  prosecuting  the  same 
course  of  experiments,  and  all  arriving  a't  the  same  results. — - 
They  do  not  all  confess  the  same  sins,  but  they  all  felt  the  power 
of  some  sin,  and  felt  miserable  in  their  guilt.  And  however  they 
may  differ  in  their  external  circumstances,  their  inward  consti¬ 
tution,  or  in  their  views  of  the  outward  part  of  religion,  there  is 
no  difference  among  them  about  the  great  facts  of  their  reli¬ 
gious  experience.  They  all  believed  the  faithful  saying  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  cried  to  God 
for  mercy  through  him,  and  received  peace  of  mind,  grace  to 
live  a  new  life,  and  to  delight  in  the  worship  of  God.  Do  you 
know  any  science  which  has  been  prosecuted  by  one  hundredth 
part  of  this  number  of  inquirers?  Which  has  been  confirmed 
by  one  thousandth  part  of  this  number  of  experimenters  ?  Or 
any  experiment  tried  with  such  uniform  and  unfailing  success 
as  this,  Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
saved  ?*  Why  then  do  you  hesitate  to  admit  the  correctness  of 
these  facts?  Is  it  because  you  perceive  they  lead  to  results 
which  you  dislike  ? 


O 

O 


12 


Horn.,  10  Cli.  Read  the  chapter. 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


29 


They  do  lead  to  results.  They  are  effects  and  tell  us  of  a 
cause.  They  are  powerful  effects,  and  proclaim  a  powerful  cause. 
They  are  moral  and  spiritual  effects,  and  assure  us  of  the  existence 
of  a  moral  and  spiritual  agent  who  has  caused  them.  They  are 
holy  effects,  and  convince  your  sinful  soul  that  they  are  produced 
by  a  holy  being.  But  they  are  also  benevolent,  life-giving,  blessed 
effects,  and  proclaim  that  God  is  love.  The  Lord  the  Spirit  is 
as  plainly  declared  in  the  facts  of  religious  experience,  as  the 
Creator  is  in  the  creation  of  the  universe;  and  it  were  as  rank 
Atheism  to  attribute  these  orderly  and  blessed  results  to  chance 
or  to  evil  passions,  as  to  attribute  the  Cosmos  to  blind  fate,  or 
to  the  beasts  that  perish.  He  is  as  much  an  enemy  to  his  hap¬ 
piness  who  denies  the  one,  as  a  foe  to  his  reason  who  rejects 
the  other.  Hear  Reader,  why  should  you  not  believe  in, 

6.  The  only  science  which  can  make  you  happy  ?  which  can 
bestow  peace  of  mind,  nerve  you  to  conquer  your  evil  habits, 
enable  you  to  live  a  holy  and  happy  life,  and  to  die  with  a 
blessed  hope  of  a  glorious  resurrection  ?  You  know  there 
is  no  science  which  makes  any  such  offers,  or  which  you  would 
believe  if  it  did.  But  the  Bible  unfolds  a  science  which  does, 
and  enables  you  to  believe  it  too.  The  facts  of  religious  expe¬ 
rience  give  most  convincing  evidence  of  the  reality  and  power 
of  the  grace  of  God.  It  were  as  easy  to  persuade  a  Christian 
that  he  hid  produced  this  change  of  heart  and  life  by  the  excite¬ 
ment  of  his  own  feelings,  as  that  he  had  kindled  the  sun  with 
a  lucifer  match.  And  the  character  of  the  work  and  the  worker 
assures  him  that  it  will  not  be  left  unfinished.  His  faith  re¬ 
ceives  these  facts  of  religious  experience  as  the  first  installments 
upon  God’s  bonds,  and  as  pledges  for  the  payment  of  the  remain¬ 
der  of  his  promises.  The  joy  and  peace  which  God  gives  him 
now,  prove  most  satisfactorily  his  ability  and  willingness  to  give 
him  larger  measures  of  these  enjoyments  when  he  is  capable  of 
receiving  them.  Just  as  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  he 
who  has  made  the  sun  to  rise  out  of  darkness  will  guide  him  on¬ 
ward  in  his  course  to  perfect  day,  have  we  also  good  reason  to 
believe  that  he  that  hath  begun  the  good  work  of  his  grace  in 
us  will  perform  it  until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ.  Christ  is  in 
us  the  hope  of  glory.  This  eternal  life,  which  is  begun  in  our 
souls,  is  so  much  superior  to  mere  animal  vitality,  that  we  can  not 
doubt  that  lie  who  has  given  us  the  greater,  will  also  give  us  the 

31.3 


30 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


lesser,  and  quicken  our  mortal  bodies  also,  bj  his  Spirit  which 
dwelleth  in  us.  We  know  that  our  Redeemer  liveth. 

7.  And  now  in  conclusion,  Dear  Reader,  we  ask  you  not  to 
take  these  things  on  our  testimony,  nor  yet  on  our  experience; 
but  to  try  for  yourself  O  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good. 
Come  see  the  Savior  who  has  saved  us,  and  be  saved  by  him  too. 
There  is  nothing  more  dangerous,  unless  resisting  the  evidence  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  than  acknowledging  this  to  be  truth  with¬ 
out  immediately  obeying  the  gospel.  God  requires  your  immediate 
and  cordial  acceptance  of  Christ  to  save  you  from  your  sins. 
He  tells  you  that  the  only  way  of  escape  from  your  sins  now  and 
from  hell  hereafter  is  through  him;  for  there  is  none  other  name 
given  under  heaven  or  among  men  whereby  you  must  be  saved. 
He  promises  to  hear  your  prayer  and  give  you  his  Holy  Spirit 
to  work  in  you  the  work  of  faith  with  power,  if  you  will  only 
and  earnestly  ask.  1  Ask ,  and  it  shall  be  given  you.  Seek  and 
ye  shall  find.  Knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  What 
man  is  there  of  you  whom ,  if  his  son  ask  bread ,  will  he 
give  him  a  stone1?  Or  if  he  ask  a  fish  will  he  give  him  a  ser¬ 
pent?  If  ye  then  being  evil  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children ,  how  much  more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him'  * 

Thus  you  will  come  to  possess  an  actual  experimental  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  most  excellent  of  the  sciences.  In  the  present 
begun  enjoyment  of  eternal  life  you  will,  not  merely  believe  in, 
but  positively  know ,  its  Author,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  he  hath  sent.  You  will  rest  in  no  fallible  and 
erring  testimony  of  man’s  wisdom,  but  your  faith  will  stand  in 
the  power  of  God.  You  will  be  able  to  say,  Now  I  believe ,  not 
because  of  thy  sayings ,  for  I  have  seen  him  myself  and  know 
that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ  the  Savior  of  the  world. f 

Hear  God’s  own  warrant  and  invitation  to  your  poor,  thirsty 
soul,  to  forsake  your  vanities  and  come  and  be  eternally  blessed 
in  Christ.  Have  the  witness  in  yourself  and  bo  a  living  proof  of 
the  blessed  reality  of  religion. 

u  Ho  every  one  that  thirsteth  !  Come  ye  to  the  waters ! 

And  he  who  hath  no  money!  Come  ye  buy  and  eat! 


The  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Bead  it  all. 

314 


John,  Chap.  IV. 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


31 


Tea  come !  Buy  wine  and  milk  without  money  and  without 
price. 

Wherefore  do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread  ? 
And  your  labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not? 

Hearken  diligently  unto  me  and  eat  ye  that  which  is  good, 
And  let  your  soul  delight  itself  in  fatness. 

Incline  your  ear  and  come  unto  me: 

Hear  and  your  soul  shall  live : 

And  I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you, 

Even  the  sure  mercies  of  David. 

Behold!  I  have  given  him  for  a  witness  to  the  people, 

A  leader  and  a  commander  to  the  people : 

Behold!  thou  shalt  call  nations  that  thou  knowest  not, 

And  nations  that  knew  not  thee  shall  run  unto  thee, 

Because  of  the  Lord  thy  God, 

And  for  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  for  he  hath  glorified  thee. 

Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found, 

Call  ye  upon  him  while  he  is  near: 

Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 

And  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts ; 

And  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy 
upon  him, 

And  to  our  God  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon. 

For  my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts, 

Neither  are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord. 

For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth, 

So  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways, 

And  my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts. 

For  as  the  rain  cometh  down,  and  the  snow  from  heaven, 
And  return  not  thither  again, 

But  water  the  earth  and  cause  it  to  bring  forth  and  bud, 

That  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the  eater; 

So  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth: 

It  shall  not  return  unto  me  void, 

But  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please, 

And  it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it. 

For  ye  shall  go  out  with  joy,  and  be  led  forth  with  peace. 
The  mountains  and  the  hills  shall  break  forth  before"you  into 
singing, 

315 


32 


SCIENCE,  OR  FAITH. 


And  all  the  trees  of  the  fields  shall  clap  their  hands. 
Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree, 

And  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle  tree 
And  it  shall  he  to  the  Lord  for  a  name , 

For  an  everlasting  sign  that  shall  not  he  cut  off  A 


316 


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31.  Infidelity  among  the  Stars,  28  pp. 

32.  Daylight  before  Sunrise,  36  pp. 

33.  Telescopic  Views  of  Scripture,  32  pp. 

31.  Science  or  Faith,  32  pp. 

35.  The  Old  and  the  New  Way,  4  pp. 

36.  The  Sabbath  the  Working  Man’s  Charter,  8  pp. 

37.  The  Family  and  Slavery,  24  pp. 

38.  Ornamental  and  Costly  Attire,  12  pp. 

39.  Be  ye  also  Ready,  (to  impenitents,)  4  pp. 

40.  The  Family  Relation  as  affected  by  Slavery,  24  pp. 

41.  A  Brand  from  the  Burning,  (Temperance,)  4  pp. 

Thirty  other  one  page  Tracts,  both  in  English  and  German. 


The  folloiving  are  32 mo.,  on  colored  paper: 

Earthly  Care  a  Heavenly  Discipline,  16  pp.,  one  cent. 

We  see  Jesus,  12  pp.  A  Brief  History  of  our  Lord,  in  simple  verse,  for 
Children.  One  cent. 

No.  1.  How  shall  I  Honor  Jesus  to-dajr  ?  4  pp.,  32mo. 

2.  You  Don’t  Talk  of  Jesus  at  Home,  4  pp. 

3.  The  Three  Wishes,  4  pp. 

4.  Think  of  your  Soul,  4  pp. 

5.  You  are  Immortal,  4  pp. 

These  five  are  of  a  size  to  inclose  in  a  letter  envelope. 


Office  and  Depository  of  the  Am.  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society, ) 

No.  28  West  Fourth  Street,  Cincinnati,  January,  1859.  J 

The  American  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society,  had  its 
origin  in  the  fact,  that  American  Slavery  was  receiving  no  ade¬ 
quate  notice  from  any  of  our  national  publication  societies,  and 
its  issues  have  accordingly  consisted  largely  of  faithful  yet  calm 
discussions,  vivid  yet  truthful  narrative  descriptions  of  that  sin, 
adapted  both  to  old  and  young, — the  Bible  being  the  basis  of 
all  of  them.  Of  these  the  Society  has  issued  sixteen  Tracts, 
(348  pp., )  and  sixteen  Volumes,  (2,800  pp.,)  most  of  the  latter 
illustrated,  and  suitable  for  Sabbath  School  Books;  also,  several 
works  for  mature  minds.  "VVe  desire  to  go  on  with  this  class  of 
publications  as  rapidly  as  possible,  that  the  whole  country,  espe¬ 
cially  the  minds  of  the  young,  may  be  flooded  with  light  on  the 
great  wickedness  of  Slavery. 

But  this  is  not  all  our  work.  We  are  a  Christian  Tract 
Society,  our  Constitution  covering  the  broad  ground  of  the 
Reformation;  and  Slavery  occupies  more  of  our  attention,  only 
because  the  danger  from  that  source  is  now  most  imminent,  and 
the  need  of  information  so  great.  Our  list  of  publications  com¬ 
prises,  besides  the  Tracts  and  Books  on  Slavery,  a  series  of  thir¬ 
teen  Tracts  on  Infidelity,  admirably  adapted  to  meet  its  present 
subtle  forms;  also,  Books  and  Tracts  on  intemperance,  Sabbath¬ 
breaking,  extravagance  in  dress,  specific  Christian  duties,  and  in 
the  department  of  Christian  biography.  We  send  out  monthly 
nine  thousand  of  our  Record,  the  Christian  Press,  to  friends  and 
patrons,  free  of  charge. 

The  Society  has  five  thousand  pages  of  stereotype  plates,  and 
a  good  supply  of  its  Books  and  Tracts.  Except  these,  it  has  no 
property — no  houses  or  presses — not  aiming  to  be  an  endowed  or 
funded  institution ,  but  only  the  organ  of  a  healthful  and  vigor¬ 
ous  Christian  sentiment,  its  foundation  being  in  the  heart  of 
Christians. 

The  following  gentlemen  compose  the  Board  of  Directors,  and 
in  common  with  other  friends  of  Freedom  and  Reform,  are  de¬ 
sirous  to  add  largely  to  the  Catalogue  of  Tracts  and  Books, 
which  will  be  done  as  rapidly  as  funds  are  provided. 

Rev.  II.  M.  STORRS,  Congregational.  Rev.  R.  P.  Aydet.ott,  D.  D.,  Presly'n. 
Rev.  J.  J.  BLAISDELL,  Presbyterian.  LKVI  COFFIN,  Friend. 

Rev.  II.  BUSHNELL,  Congregational.  JOHN  JOLLIFFE,  Esq.,  Baptist. 

Rev.  R.  II.  POLLOCK,  Ass.  Presbyt'rn.  A.  E.  D.  TWEED,  Presbyterian. 

Rev.  G.  IK  ARCHIBALD,  Ass.  lief.  Pr.  S.  C.  FOSTER,  Congregational. 

Rev.  T.  D.  CROWE,  Methodist.  Dr.  J.  P.  WALKER,  Congregational. 

Orders  for  Books,  Donations,  and  all  Communications  for  the 
Society,  should  be  addressed  to 

GEO.  L.  WEED,  Corresponding  Sec'y  and  Treas ., 

CINCINNATI,  OHIO, 


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